Shanxi will soon become the country's first province to grant paid leave to female workers during menstruation as a draft labor protection regulation has been presented to the Provincial Legislature on March 30, Monday.
Shanxi Daily reported that the draft regulation, if approved by the provincial legislature, would allow female employees in Shanxi to avail the leave benefit during menstrual period.
Under the proposed regulation, a paid leave of absence that will last for one or two days will be given to female employees who experience too painful or heavy menstruation (also medically known as dysmenorrhea or menorrhagia).
The female employee, however, must provide a medical certificate from a medical facility or hospital approved by the employer, the report said.
The regulation also requires that menstruating female employees who have to stand up for much of their work days must be given time to rest or take rest breaks and their shifts should not be longer than four hours.
The proposal to grant menstrual leave to female workers first gained public attention in recent years after Zhang Xiaomei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, made the proposal at the "two sessions" in 2011.
Zhang's proposal, however, resulted in two conflicting issues, the report said. One concern is that the menstrual level would expose the privacy of female workers and others fear this would make it even more difficult for female workers to compete for jobs with male counterparts.
The last time the Chinese government amended the provisions on labor protection of female workers was in 2012, which made adjustments on the scope of jobs that employers can assign to female workers during menstrual period and during pregnancy and lactation.
Under the present regulation, female employees are granted 98 days of maternity leave for childbirth, an increase of eight days or more than a week from the previous regulation.
A new provision on the regulation also allows female employees to visit a doctor's office for prenatal care during their work time.