Blog: Why businesses need to take menopause seriously

Anne-Marie Boyle explains why we all need to keep menopause, its symptoms and impacts on individuals in our minds everyday.

It was great to see World Menopause Day 2022 earlier this month attracting so much attention.  We’ve really seen this awareness develop in recent years – and rightly so.  As an employment law firm it was essential that we were educated too.  We’ve worked hard to understand the impact menopause symptoms have on employees, to find workable solutions for employers managing those experiencing workplace difficulties and to provide excellent advice and support for clients who come to us concerned about how their employers have treated them.

Whilst we’ve seen a real improvement in employers understanding of menopause (and its impacts on employees), there remains some way to go before we can say most employers truly ‘get it’.

What sort of claims are we seeing and what does mistreatment look like?

We continue to see menopause-related allegations and potential claims in the form of disability discrimination, sex and/or age discrimination, unfair dismissal and whistleblowing.

In our experience, the mistreatment of employees in relation to menopause can be roughly grouped into these 4 categories:

• Failure to give appropriate weight to the impact of symptoms of menopause
• Poor behaviour of male managers towards menopausal employees
• Inappropriate/harassing comments made to menopausal employees
• Refusal to make or consider making adjustments

As always, there are some employers really working hard to support menopausal employees but others failing to take such employees concerns seriously – or worse, seeing them as an inconvenience.

What’s next for menopause in the workplace?

There have been two significant reports looking at menopause in the workplace over the last 6 months.

The Government’s Women and Equalities Commission has recommended:

• a new protected characteristic of menopause should be created, which should include a duty to provide reasonable adjustments for menopausal employees
• a ‘Menopause Ambassador’ should be appointed by the government that will work with stakeholders from businesses, unions, and advisory groups to improve awareness and encourage good practice
• the government should launch a visible public health campaign around menopause—its symptoms, impact and how to seek treatment and other help, including support at work—aimed at disseminating good quality and accurate information about menopause
• model menopause policies should be produced to assist employers
• a specific ‘menopause leave’ policy should be developed and piloted by the government and a large public sector employer
• the Health and Safety Executive and the Equality and Human Rights Commission should publish guidance on the legal considerations when supporting those with menopause within the next six months

In addition, an All Party Parliamentary Group on Menopause (which looked at a much wider remit including the accessibility of HRT therapies) concluded that:

• The Government must co-ordinate and support an employer-led campaign to raise awareness of menopause in the workplace and to help tackle the taboo surrounding menopause and work. This campaign must promote the importance of supporting employees through the menopause transition as a core employee health issue, and promote the business case for investing in employee support.
• The Government must update and promote guidance for employers on best practice menopause at work policies and supporting interventions.

Beyond tribunal claims, there are so many costs for employers if they lose menopausal employees.  With hiring so difficult at the moment, businesses have to think about the costs of replacing these skilled/experienced staff, the loss of productivity if these employees are unsupported together with absence costs – and potentially damage to an employer’s reputation.

It will be interesting to see what the Government does on all these helpful recommendations.  There is certainly a lot of momentum in this area now, so watch this space.

It’s been suggested as many as one in four women aged 40 or older consider resigning, reducing their hours, retiring or leaving the workforce altogether because of their menopause symptoms.  Business just cannot afford this.  So whilst World Menopause Day does a great job of raising awareness of the menopause, we really need to keep menopause, its wide-ranging symptoms and considerable impacts on individuals in our minds everyday.

There is a range of menopause-related information on our website. Click here and search ‘menopause’ for blogs, cases and guidance.

As always, if we can help you with any of the issues discussed above, whether as an employer or an employee, please contact us on 0117 325 0526 or click below to submit an enquiry.