Municipal employees in Abbeville, on the Somme, will not be able to benefit from menstrual leave. Starting January 1, 2024, the city wanted to launch an experiment to allow its agents, upon presentation of a medical certificate, to use this system, implemented in certain companies.
But the measure was rejected by the subprefecture, which considered it illegal, since no law had been approved in this regard. Municipal employees, however, will be able to adjust their schedules or work from home, especially those who suffer from endometriosis.
“I often have very swollen kidneys, it hurts, it burns. I receive electric shocks,” Anne-Lise Benzo Di Verdura, an employee of the Abbeville archives and heritage libraries, who suffers from this disease, explains to BFMTV. “Being able to set up a workstation (…) is important,” she says.
A letter addressed to Élisabeth Borne
Regarding menstrual leave, the elected officials of Abbeville denounce the rejection of the experiment and send a letter to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. “It’s a taboo subject. We have to make things happen. If we are pioneers, we hope to move forward, that the Prime Minister takes into account our wishes. We are waiting for there to be a law,” explains Michelle Delage, elected Abbeville representative in charge of the gender equality.
At the moment, three bills on menstrual leave have been presented in Parliament: one supported by environmentalist deputies and two others by socialist senators and deputies.
A device that divides
The introduction of menstrual leave is far from unanimous in France. At the end of April, Élisabeth Borne welcomed the initiatives taken in some companies in favor of menstrual leave and assured that the Government was “studying the system” to “facilitate this commitment.”
“We will be able to make a decision” when the legislative proposals have been presented “and we have visibility on their content,” also explained Isabelle Rome, Minister for Equality between Women and Men.
More recently, in June, a senatorial report estimated that this device “is not justified if it is not associated with a disabling pathology.” “In any case, for this type of pathology, the response is, according to the senators who authored the report, through real therapeutic care and not through the establishment of sick leave.”
In Europe, Spain is the only country that has definitively adopted a law establishing menstrual leave for women who suffer from painful periods.
Source: BFM TV
