Carrefour announced on Wednesday that women suffering from endometriosis could benefit from 12 days of absence per year, while a bill aimed at establishing menstrual leave in France was tabled this week in the Senate. A measure risks creating more discrimination, according to Dare feminism.
The retail giant Carrefour announced this Wednesday measures for “the health of women at work”. They provide in particular “12 days of authorized medical absence per year for women suffering from endometriosis and having a document attesting to the situation of disability recognized by the company”.
This document can for example be the recognition of the status of disabled worker, issued by a departmental commission specializing in disability. Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects almost 10% of women and girls of childbearing age, according to the world health organization, an agency of the United Nations. It is often associated with acute pain during menstruation.
Carrefour’s announcement comes as menstrual leave became law in Europe, via Spain, in February. Locally, in France, certain entities have already adopted it, in different forms. Since March 2022, the office furniture company Louis Design has, for example, offered “one additional paid day off” per month for people with painful periods. The latter do not need to go to the doctor to justify these absences because “everything is played on trust”, explains the company on his site. The Socialist Party et the city of Saint-Ouen made similar announcements in the following months.
A bill tabled in the Senate
Initiatives that inspired PS Senator Hélène Conway-Mouret. The latter tabled a bill on Tuesday “aiming to improve and guarantee the health and well-being of women at work”. With this text, the senator for French people living abroad wants to introduce a work stoppage of a maximum of two days per month, valid for a period of three months, for people suffering from endometriosis or dysmenorrhea (painful periods). The compensation granted to the person concerned is paid “without delay”, specifies the bill.
The main objective is to “free speech” on a subject “which was intimate, hidden before”, explains Hélène Conway-Mouret to BFMTV.com. It also wants to set up a real medical follow-up for the people concerned by these problems. This is why work stoppages are only valid for three months, but the senator does not consider this binding: “just call your doctor to renew it”.
“Women are fending for themselves for the moment, managing their suffering on their own,” she laments.
His bill also wants to allow people suffering from dysmenorrhea to telecommute when their job allows them and create a five-day paid leave for women who have had a miscarriage.
Endometriosis “impacts professional life”
For Yasmine Candau, president of the EndoFrance association, “anything that goes in the direction of helping menstruating people with endometriosis is excellent”. She considers it important to “unravel the received ideas about endometriosis: it’s much more than menstrual pain, it’s important to realize that endometriosis does not stay at the door of the company, it impacts life. professional” with difficulty concentrating and absences.
The association for the fight against endometriosis is not certain, however, that leave for this disease is the priority. “There are so many forms of endometriosis that it would take tailor-made. All companies should be aware of endometriosis and act accordingly, not necessarily with leave but with rest rooms, hot water bottles…” , says Yasmine Candau to BFMTV.com.
Menstrual leave is not unanimous
On the broader issue of menstrual leave, Yasmine Candau fears a counter-productive measure at the level of endometriosis: “we should not tell ourselves that the pain is normal, that we are taking our leave and that it will be better the following month” and thus not seek to be diagnosed with a disease that is already too little identified.
For Isabelle Gueguen, co-director of Perfégal, a consulting company specializing in gender equality, the priority would be to work on the working conditions of people suffering from painful periods. She also judges that some companies make these announcements for communication purposes, pointing out for example the fact that in the case of Carrefour, the disability caused by endometriosis must be recognized, which involves more steps than a sick leave.
“Menstrual leave can also stigmatize all women, always bringing them back to their bodies,” says the specialist in gender equality at work.
An opinion shared by the association Dare feminism, which sees in the menstrual leave “a false good idea”. Its spokeswoman Violaine De Philippis-Abate judges that menstrual leave targeting women “exposes to discrimination in hiring”. “An employer will think that they will be more absent than men,” she told BFMTV.com.
Sick leave without a waiting period for men and women?
“When maternity leave was introduced, the same arguments were given and in the end, they are still hired,” she adds. Dares made a similar observation in a study published in May 2021 at the end of a testing of great magnitude. “Introducing information on the family situation (presence of children, marital status) or indicating a period of inactivity in CVs does not lead to any significant difference in treatment between female and male applications”, observed the service at the time. Department of Labor statistics.
The Defender of Rights, an institution responsible for defending people whose rights are not respected, however judged in March 2022 that the discrimination in employment of which women are victims because of their pregnancy is “still too frequent”.
“We still make too many decisions where women are not hired because of their state of pregnancy”, affirmed Claire Hédon, at the head of this institution, in a communiqué.
To avoid this situation with menstrual leave, Dare feminism therefore offers an alternative solution: a fixed number of sick leaves allocated without an equivalent waiting period for men and women. “It’s infeasible,” replies Senator Hélène Conway-Mouret. “What they are proposing is to add three weeks of vacation per year”.
A “step” in taking into account the rules
“You have to say that this is a step, which allows you to take into account an important phenomenon”, considers the senator about her bill. The main goal is to “de-stigmatize something that is completely natural”.
A fight shared by Isabelle Gueguen, who finds “interesting that the rules cease to be a taboo subject”. “Beyond the day off, it is the company’s view of endometriosis that is important”, also says Yasmine Candau.
“If we know that there is benevolence on this subject in the company and that we will not be judged if we take a break, it causes less stress and therefore less pain. It’s win-win “, she underlines.
