Employers at more than 120 tech and financial services companies face demands to allow for up to 10 days’ paid menopause leave for workers.
The Financial Services Union (FSU) is to seek time off for staff who suffer from symptoms after the special leave was granted at a major bank.
According to report, Bank of Ireland began offering up to 10 days’ paid menopause leave, which can be taken within a 12-month time frame.
AIB and Ulster Bank also offer supports including handbooks and advice to managers, but they do not offer special leave, according to the union.
“I think the issue of menopause affects women, not just in their personal life but stretching into the workplace as well,” said FSU industrial relations organiser Caitleen Desetti.
“It can cause a lot of anxiety for women about how to talk to your manager and get through work as well.
“What’s equally important is to have the supports in place to have management there to support you when going through it.
“It’s great that Bank of Ireland has introduced it and it’s an example for other employers. The union is looking for similar policies at all employers.”
Asked whether she would be in favour of employers offering special menopause leave, Rotunda Hospital gynaecologist Dr Vicky O’Dwyer said: “I think we need to be cognisant of everyone’s health needs.”
Speaking at the opening of a new menopause clinic in the Dublin hospital, she said: “People have leave for other health conditions and, for those severely affected by menopause, you have to consider them as well.”
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Additionally, the FSU launched a workplace guidance policy entitled “You Don’t Just Go Through the Menopause at Home”. It sets out a draft policy for employers and the FSU will seek to have it implemented in the 120 firms where it operates.
Mandy La Combre, senior industrial relations officer with the FSU, said the guidance policy could “finally put behind us decades of women feeling isolated and alone, suffering through symptoms in work with no support”.
She said menopause had long been viewed as a private and personal matter, shrouded in stigma. Some employers had been slow to recognise that women going through menopause required special consideration.
The union handbook says part of the process includes perimenopause, which usually arrives in a woman’s mid-40s.
Perimenopause symptoms can commonly be as severe as menopause.
“Surgical menopause can occur when women undergo certain surgeries, therefore triggering menopausal symptoms often at a much younger age,” it says.
“Menopause is a turning point in a woman’s life, not a disease, but it can have a big impact on a woman’s well-being. Menopause can affect each individual differently.”
It states that menopause can affect women, non-binary people and some trans men.
“A trans man is someone who proposes to go through, is going through a process, or part of a process, to change their gender from woman to man. Therefore, they may also go through perimenopausal or menopause symptoms.”
A Bank of Ireland spokesperson said its new policy offered paid leave to staff who experience menopause-related sickness.
Joanne Healy, the bank’s head of employee relations, said: “We want to help our colleagues at all stages of their lives, including the menopause. This new policy and training have been introduced as important supports for our colleagues who are going through the menopause.
“We hope that they will help us continue to build a work environment in which everyone is treated with fairness, dignity and respect.”
