The Spanish Congress of Deputies approved this Thursday a law so that workers who suffer from painful periods can take a “menstrual leave”. This is a pioneering measure in Europe with which the leftist government seeks to break taboos on gender issues.
How will the measure work? ABC to understand the decision.
What is contemplated?
The text of the law, as explained by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, contemplates that painful menstruation will enter the catalog of causes for which Spanish doctors may grant temporary disability.
Thus, the text says that “the sick leave in which the woman may find herself in case of secondary disabling menstruation or secondary dysmenorrhea associated with pathologies such as endometriosis will be considered a special situation of temporary disability due to common contingencies.”
However, menstrual loss is only one of the key measures of a bill much broader approved this Thursday to increase access to abortion in public hospitals.
(You can read: The struggle of South Korean women not to be ‘baby machines’)
How can you apply for disability?
According to the newspaper El Español, It is a disability that can be requested with each woman’s family doctor.
It will not be necessary for women to have any diagnosed disease, but it may be granted without a previous pathology.
In addition, to request this disability, it will not be necessary for the workers to have a minimum number of days quoted in their social security scheme. Something that, according to El Mundo, is necessary in other causes of disability in Spain.
How many days does the disability include?
Despite the fact that initially, according to El Mundo, there was talk of establishing a maximum disability of three days, The law approved this Thursday does not contemplate a time limit. That is, it can be a single day or many more, as the doctor deems necessary.
Who will pay for disability days?
It will be the State that covers all the days of disability due to menstrual pain and not the companies. This in order to prevent the creation of a “culture of stigmatization” that ends up affecting the hiring of women in the business sector.
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Is it the first country to approve such a standard?
This law makes Spain the first country in Europe to grant a license for menstrual pain, but it is not the first in the world.
However, there are few nations that have a similar measure. This is the case of Japan, Indonesia and Zambia.
Indonesia was the pioneer country in that regard. The law, established in 1948, states that women cannot be forced to work on the first and second days of their menstruation. The measure was then updated in 2003, allowing women to use one or two days of leave per painful rule.
In Japan, the law has existed since 1947 and does not impose a limit on days of leave. However, only 0.9 percent of women used it between 2019 and 2020, according to Efe.
The legislation in that Asian country does not oblige companies to pay leave for menstrual leave but, according to the Huffington Post, it does penalize those that prevent a woman from making use of her disability due to painful menstruation.
In South Korea, the measure has existed since 1953. However, it only allows women to take a day off without the company having to pay for such leave.
Similar measures also exist in Taiwan, where women can take a maximum of three days off a year for pain that prevents them from performing their duties.
Similar measures have also been discussed in other European countries, although they have not come to an end. In Italy, a bill to that effect was presented in 2016 but was never approved; in France there is nothing official, but it is a matter that is being debated and in Germany, women can go to the family doctor to be given sick leave due to menstrual pain, but it is at the doctor’s discretion.
In Latin America, Mexico City proposed to Congress this Thursday to reform the federal labor law and include leave for menstrual pain in cases of primary or secondary dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation).
And in Colombia, the proposal has been raised but has not been officially approved in Congress.
(Keep reading: Period poverty: Taipei metro will give free sanitary pads)
Is there custom support?
The support is not absolute. The “menstrual leave”, in fact, aroused reservations in the socialist part of the government and is criticized by the union UGT (Union General de Trabajadores).
UGT, one of the two largest unions in the country, He expressed his concern that employers who want to avoid them end up stopping the hiring of women.
The conservative Popular Party (PP), the main opposition party, also warned of the risk of “marginalization, stigmatization” and “negative consequences in the labor market” for women.
There is a risk of marginalization, stigmatization and negative consequences in the labor market
The government has defended the measure, assuring that it seeks to end the taboo that exists around female menstruation.
“We recognize menstrual health as part of the right to health and we fight stigma and silence,” Spanish Equality Minister Irene Montero said in the past, as quoted by Euronews.
According to a study collected by the Spanish union Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), 53% of women suffer from painful periods and in young people, it rises to 74%.
What other things does the law propose?
In addition to low menstrual The new law aims to combat menstrual poverty, and in this sense, it is committed to free menstrual hygiene products –tampons, pads or menstrual cups- in educational centers, prisons and social centers for women in vulnerable situations.
Worse, the focus of the project is abortion, in order to guarantee the realization of voluntary interruptions of pregnancy in public health centers.
So, The requirement for parental authorization is eliminated for girls under 16 and 17 who wish to have an abortion. But the deadlines set by law in 2010 and recently endorsed by the Constitutional Court are maintained, with which abortion will continue to be free during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
It also stipulates the right to temporary disability from the first day of the 39th week of pregnancy and disability if health care is received for an abortion that prevents women from working.
Public and universal access to contraception is also guaranteed. “Last-generation pills will once again be covered by Social Security. The rule will promote methods of male contraception,” says El Mundo in this regard.
Spain also took another step this Thursday by approving a law that recognizes the will of the person from the age of 16 as the only requirement to change sex in the civil registry, by eliminating the mandatory hormonation and psychological and medical evaluations as requirements.
Minors between the ages of 16 and 14 may change their sex in the registry as long as they come with their parents or legal guardians, while those between 12 and 14 years of age will need judicial authorization.
ANGIE RUIZ HURTADO
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
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