Spain could become the first European country to grant women a specific sick leave in the event of “disabling” rules, a measure that is debated in society.
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For some, it is the late recognition of pain that many women face without daring to talk to their employer. For the others, it is a risky measure which associates the fact of being a woman with a disease and threatens to dig more inequalities by slowing down the hiring of women.
After an intense debate, including within the left-wing coalition, the Spanish government approved, Tuesday, May 17, in the Council of Ministers, the preliminary draft law of sexual and reproductive and reproductive and Voluntary termination of pregnancy, including a new social law for women: menstrual leave.
The measure will allow those who suffer from “disabling” rules (intense pain, cramps, colic, nausea, etc.), to have a sick leave paid by social security, after a first medical consultation. If, in Asia, several countries like Japan, South Korea or Indonesia have long granted menstrual leave, Spain could become the first European country to adopt such a measure. “It is one of the most revolutionary questions and which best defines this coalition government, which takes action to improve life [of women],” said the Minister of Equality, resulting from the party of the party Radical left Podemos.
friction within the government
The draft bill has nevertheless aroused friction within the government. When the draft written by the Ministry of Equality was broadcast in the press on Wednesday, May 11, the vice-president of the executive and Minister of the Economy, the socialist Nadia Calviño, had warned that the government was not going “never adopt measures stigmatizing women”.
“What stigmatizes is not having sufficient sensitivity to understand that men and women are different and that the world of work is not neutral,” replied the second vice-president of the government And Minister of Labor, Communist Yolanda Diaz. The leader of the opposition, the president of the People’s Party (PP, right), Alberto Nuñez-Feijoo, got involved: “It is the doctor who gives [sick leave], not the second vice-president of the government, against the will of the first vice-president “.
Until then, it was in theory possible to ask for a sick leave from his doctor in the event of painful rules, but the employee was only covered and remunerated from the fourth day of absence and provided that 180 days of social contributions in the past five years.
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