Shanxi first province to give women 'menopause rights'

An employee at Taiyuan Public Transport Holdings Ltd in North China's Shanxi province has become the first to benefit from new laws introduced to give women undergoing the menopause the right to ask their employers to adjust their work to better suit their condition.

An Jianxiang will now be able to move roles if she feels she cannot fulfill her duties because of the issues involved. It is the first ever law to give menopausal rights to female workers in China.

The province's first women's labor law was passed by its local legislative body in late July and will come into force on October 1. The menopause article was added after public surveys found that there was a strong desire among women for protection of their labor rights during this transitional time in their lives.

In addition, the law provides specific rights to women relating to the times when they are either menstruating, in pregnancy, during labor or breast feeding.

"Female employees take up more than one third of our total 10,000 work force and they all work very hard." said Jia Shan, chairman of the labor union at Taiyuan Public Transport.

"I don't think there will be any problem implementing the regulation across all administrative units of State-owned companies, but it's hard to say whether it will be strictly implemented in private enterprises, small and micro enterprises."

The All-China Woman's Federation website said the law will be applicable to both public and private organizations. It also said to ensure its enforcement, the law will stipulate that "governments above county levels should include the indicator of female employees' labor protection into the social credit system and take measures to protect their legitimate rights".

Fu Xiaoying, a female employee from the Shanxi branch of Sinopec Corp, said: "I think it's hard to define protection of women workers during menopause.

"Some women are not willing to let others know that they are menopausal, as they have worries that this might bring about discrimination or unfair treatment in workplace.

One HR supervisor at a public relations company in Beijing, said: "The new regulation has two sides: on the one hand, it could help make it easier for female employees at workplaces, but on the other, it could increase the risk of abuse of their rights."

Anhui province and Wuhan in Hubei province have released similar regulations previously women workers who suffer menstrual cramps could ask for one or two days off from work.

Contact the writers at huangying@chinadaily.com.cn and sunruisheng@chinaddaily.com.cn