China: controversial menstrual leave initiative set for Liaoning Province

As of 01 March 2021, Liaoning province in northeast China will allow employees suffering from menstrual pain to take up to two extra days off per month. Presented as an innovative measure aimed at better guaranteeing specific rights for women at work, many have raised the point that such supposedly more female positive provisions already exist in several other provinces (at least a dozen), including in Shanghai that launched a pilot program as far back as 1987. Furthermore, they point out that these types of provisions are seldom taken up because of their associated constraints. Thus in Liaoning province, a medical certificate for severe dysmenorrhea or excessive menstrual flow will be required. In addition, the cost of this specific leave is to be borne solely by the employers without any state financial aid. As a result some argue that these provisions may ultimately result in increased discrimination in hiring women and retaining women in employment, since Chinese companies often perceive female employment, and pregnancies in particular, as ‘financial burdens’, even though the government has adopted a resolutely pro-birth stance. According to an online survey by Cover News, while 29% of respondents do fear that such measures will discriminate against women in terms of recruitment, 58% support them overall, including the requirement for employers to provide a ten-minute break every two hours for women who work upright during their menstrual cycle, and they also hope that other regions will adopt them.