Newsletter No. 27
APRIL / MAY 2005
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AMWU seeks extra women’s leave The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union seeks 12 paid days menstrual leave per year for women workers as part of a new enterprise agreement it is negotiating with Toyota at its South Australian plant. The plant employs nearly 500 women in a workforce of about 4,000. The AMWU also wants Toyota to provide on-site childcare. Menstrual leave would be on top of normal sick leave, but only women ‘genuinely ill’ because of their periods could take the leave. Ian Jones, AMWU vehicle builders division secretary, proposes that like maternity and parental leave, menstrual leave recognizes it is a matter that affects working life, so “people should be given time off to accommodate the circumstances they find themselves in" (‘Oh what a feeling .. and it’s worth a day off every month’ Sydney Morning Herald 11.2.05) While the proposal is a first for the AMWU in Australia, menstrual leave is a fairly widely recognised women workers’ right throughout Asia. |