A recent YouGov survey commissioned by Acas found that a third of employers do not feel well equipped to support women who are going through the menopause within their workplace.  Over a third said they weren’t confident that the managers in their organisation would have the necessary skills to support staff who have menopause symptoms.  Employees and employers alike, it’s time to get informed.  Employers, it’s time to get supportive and to take action to help ensure you stay within the law.

When people get it wrong, it can lead to breaches of the Equality Act 2010, which protects workers against discrimination.  Whilst the menopause is not a specific protected characteristic under this Act, if an employee or worker is put at a disadvantage, or treated less favourably because of their menopause symptoms, this could constitute unlawful discrimination if related to any of the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment and sex.  The menopause is also an important health and wellbeing concern for staff.  The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires an employer, where reasonably practical, to ensure everyone’s health, safety and welfare at work.  Specific considerations arise for someone affected by the menopause.

Most women go through the menopause between the ages of 45 and 55 but it can also happen earlier or later in life.  For some people, it is medically induced.  Symptoms can vary from one person to another, ranging from very mild to severe.  They can last for several years and include hot flushes, night sweats, insomnia, weight gain, mood changes, memory and concentration problems and anxiety.  They can affect staff at any time.  Some data shows that over 60% experience symptoms resulting in behaviour changes, 1 in 4 severe debilitating symptoms and around two thirds of encounter a general lack of support and understanding around it.  The menopause needs to be handled sensitively and within an environment where people feel able to speak openly about what they are experiencing.  They need to get support and understanding to enable them to continue doing their job competently, confidently and effectively.

It’s important for both employers and staff alike to have the effects of the menopause at work managed well.

We need to see a continuing raising of awareness in this area.  Here is our suggested 30-point list containing some of the key things that employers should consider doing to help themselves and their staff:

1. Create a workplace culture where staff know that the menopause can and will be dealt with sensitively, in an informed manner and with dignity and respect.  Somewhere were they can raise menopause issues and not be put at a disadvantage or treated less favourably for doing so.
2. Review and adopt the right procedures to help staff affected by the menopause (with practical suggestions to follow below).
3. Develop a menopause policy that explains what the menopause is, how it can affect people differently, at different times in their life, what support is available to any member of staff affected by it and include a commitment to diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities.
4. Share this policy across the business.  Review it regularly and use it as the basis for staff training.
5. Review and update other current policies to make sure they cover links with the menopause.  For example, equal opportunities, dignity at work, diversity and inclusion policies, flexible working policies, absence management policies and sickness reporting policies.
6. Ensure that current health and safety risk assessments cover the different stages of the menopause.
7. Provide awareness training for managers on the menopause – on what it is, its effects, the laws applicable to it, how to help staff to raise menopause concerns, how to deal with them sensitively, fairly and supportively, know what support and guidance the business can offer and the workplace changes that could be identified and effected.
8. Train up menopause or wellbeing champions to be a first point of contact for staff to speak to and obtain advice from in a sensitive manner and what they know is a safe space.  Some may not feel comfortable talking to their manager.
9. Ensure HR is fully trained up, involved and on board.
10. Run workshops to raise staff awareness.
11. Include men and women in this approach.  Although the menopause will only be experienced by women and other people who have a menstrual cycle, any member of staff might be involved in supporting others who are going through it, whether at work or at home.
12. Set up a support network for staff affected by the menopause.
13. Advertise where they can find more information.
14. Create and maintain a positive and open environment for them, to support them through every stage of it.
15. Have early and regular follow-up conversations with them, to understand their needs and find solutions before problems arise.  Fend them off at the pass.
16. Take appropriate action to prevent that person from losing confidence in their skills and abilities, have increased mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression, feel like they need to take time off work and hide the reasons for it, experience a dip in their performance and, ultimately, leave their job.
17. Identify the ways that menopause symptoms could potentially make a given job harder for someone in the menopause to cope with.  Where are there health and safety risks?  Do they work for long hours at a time?  Do they get regular breaks?  Is there a rest room they can go to?  Do they have access to chilled drinking water as well as water at room temperature? Are their toilet facilities easily accessible and can they access them regularly or at set times only?  What temperature do they work in?  Is their ventilation?  Is their access to natural light?  Is there access to fresh air?  Do they have to wear a uniform?  Could it make them feel too hot or otherwise cause them discomfort?  In terms of the material or its fit?  How flexible are the demands of their job?  Can they work from home?  Can they change their hours of work?  Can they change their days of work?
18. Discuss with a given member of staff, on a case by case basis, the specific difficulties they are experiencing.  Identify them and the changes that could be made to help them – to remove altogether where possible or, where not, at least decrease any disadvantages they might experience.
19. Make the practical changes that can reasonably be implemented.
20. Afford a reasonable amount of time for those changes to be adjusted to.  Let them bed in.
21. Continue to do what can reasonably be done to ensure menopause symptoms are not made worse by the workplace or by working practices.
22. Conduct and review risk assessments regularly to make sure working environments remain safe and healthy – both for those working from the office and for those working from home.
23. Record menopause-related absence from work appropriately.  Do so separately from other sickness absences and wider leave records.  Use a sickness absence management system which is flexible enough to allow for menopause to be recorded as a reason for absence instead of forcing someone into ticking another box (such as a mental health one).
24. Discount menopause absences when looking at sickness absence and attendance management.
25. Allow staff time off work to go to medical appointments related to the menopause.  Consider whether (on a discretionary basis) to offer it as paid leave or as unpaid.
26. Manage performance appropriately.  If performance issues might be arising because of menopause symptoms, take that into account and manage it accordingly, in a supportive and understanding manner.
27. In general, focus on the support that can be provided to each and every employee affected by the menopause.  Don’t fall into the trap of only offering it to people who you consider could be classified as disabled under the Equality Act 2010.
28. Have regular conversations with staff and listen to their concerns for so long as they exist (without running out of steam).  This might help resolve issues early, prevent some from arising at all and significantly reduce the risk of liability arising and legal action being taken.
29. Ensure that staff are not unlawfully discriminated against due to the menopause or them having menopause symptoms.
30. Educate and clamp down clearly and decisively on all forms of inappropriate behaviour, which could get people into trouble.  That includes “jokes” and the dreaded “office banter”.

Julie Stewart

Stewart Law Solicitors