Northern Ireland’s employers are under increasing pressure to ensure they facilitate women who are going through the menopause. The Equality Commissioner has warned firms could end up on the “wrong side of the law” if they do not take action on the issue, which is only gathering momentum with an increasing number of women speaking up about the condition.
K-wide there are more than a million women with menopausal symptoms who feel under pressure to quit their jobs because they are not receiving the support they need, according to a recent survey.
A leading employment lawyer from Northern Ireland says the figures are “quite shocking”, stressing the number of cases taken by women claiming they were discriminated against after suffering from the symptoms of menopause are increasing.
And employers are being placed on notice they must be aware of the problems women of a certain age do face, says Sinead Casey, a Northern Ireland-born lawyer with the London firm Linklaters. She advises clients on ways to avoid being taken before a tribunal under the Equality Act.
The poll of 2,000 women currently experiencing menopause or premenopausal symptoms across the UK, commissioned by Koru Kids, found 18% were considering leaving their jobs because of their symptoms.
It is estimated at least 5.87 million women of menopausal or premenopausal age currently work in the UK, meaning more than one million may be looking to quit due to their symptoms. These figures are also in line with estimates by BUPA, the health insurance company.
The most common reason was the pressures put on them (42%), a failure to receive the flexible working they need to manage their symptoms (39%) and a lack of understanding from management of what they are experiencing (39%).
The research also found that seven in 10 women who took time off as a result of their symptoms did not tell their employer the real reason why, while nearly three-quarters of women experiencing menopause said they did not feel able to talk openly about their symptoms with colleagues.
Similarly, a quarter of women experiencing menopause symptoms reported they were unhappy in their jobs because of a lack of support, with nearly two-thirds saying that their place of work has not introduced any kind of policy to make things easier for anyone experiencing menopause symptoms.
BBC NI health correspondent Marie Louise Connolly recently spoke on Talkback about how she was embarrassed about mentioning symptoms. That was until a breakthrough early morning tweet.
“4.27am wide awake — yet I’m exhausted. Night sweats. Sofa surfing. Anxious. Craving sleep. Heavy fuzzy head. Forgetful. Hot. Tomorrow/today is looming,” she wrote, describing the words as being formulated many, many times in the same place, on the sofa, but never had the nerve to post.
“I was embarrassed, I saw it as a failure people thinking not being able to cope with these symptoms,” Connolly said, adding she knew it would go to many, many people, including colleagues.
The correspondent was also covering the pandemic, interviewing many people a lot worse off and believing she had much less to complain about.
But the reaction was “fantastic”, with 100 women responding in the few minutes she had left her phone and stepped out into the garden. Flying later that day to a family wedding there were 8,000 responses by the time she stepped off the plane.
It was “really liberating”.
While there was no suggestion the BBC reporter ever felt like leaving her job, even less she would take a case to a tribunal, her story and that of other high profile figures, including the television presenter Davina McCall, has helped to open up the conversation to what Casey describes a “taboo” subject up to very recently.
“I think it is part of the broader issue, only in more recent times topics around women’s health are being more openly discussed,” says Casey, originally from Carryduff.
“These are cultural issues, where certain issues, certain topics, including miscarriage and menopause are regarded as private, somewhat taboo, but there has been a radical shift in the last two years.”
She says this is reflected in the numbers claiming menopause as a reason for taking the case to a tribunal, which is small but climbing.
“There is a definite trend here; a couple of years ago only a handful of cases, maybe five, last year about 20,” reveals Casey, a former Assumption Grammar, Ballynahinch, student.
“That is pretty significant in terms of percentage and that trend is continuing. It takes a while for cases to come through but that trend is continuing.”
She attributes this to growing awareness it is an issue both in the workplace and more widely. She cites the recent Channel 4 programme fronted by McCall, which detailed the television presenter’s own issues with perimenopause.
Further, the UK government has set up a dedicated UK Menopause Taskforce that involves government officials and senior clinicians from across all four nations. Its first meeting was in February.
Millions of women go through the menopause every year, with the majority experiencing symptoms that can be severe, such as low mood, anxiety, hot flushes and difficulty sleeping, and have a negative impact on everyday life, according to the task force.
It aims to tackle issues surrounding the menopause including increasing access to treatment, and “ending the taboos and stigmas that still surround conversations about the menopause, including in the workplace”.
While a small number of women are citing menopause directly in their tribunal cases, it is much more difficult to track whether others believe it contributed to their alleged discrimination, says Casey.
Cases are taken under protected grounds, including disability, gender and age. There is discussion over whether menopause should be a protected characteristic in itself.
But there is legislation allowing employees to combine the three in their claim, which would make it easier for women who believed their menopause symptoms and how they were dealt with contributed to the alleged discrimination or harassment, the lawyer says. But it has not yet been enacted.
“If they can be combined it will be easier for women to meet the threshold,” she adds.
Social worker Maria Rooney made legal history last year when an employment tribunal ruled in her favour after she successfully argued she was discriminated against after suffering the symptoms of menopause. It was under the disability banner of employment law.
Now a campaigner, Rooney (51) has spoken publicly about her case and why she felt compelled to take the action.
She suffered anxiety and depression but claimed these were disregarded.
She argued the menopausal symptoms she was experiencing had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on her ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
“I was a level-three social worker I had some very complex cases which meant I had to be on the ball all the time.
“I was sitting in big meetings forgetting people’s names, I couldn’t get my words out. I felt embarrassed, some people were laughing at me.
“I was suffering from chronic fatigue, I was absolutely exhausted because I’d had no sleep at night because of night sweats, and my eyes would be closing while I was driving to work.
“My line manager issued me with a formal warning for being off sick.
“I said, ‘I’ve been working for this organisation for 12 years, I’ve hardly ever been off sick,’ and I appealed the warning.
“During the appeal hearing I walked into the room and it was me, a woman, in front of a panel of all men, there didn’t seem to be any understanding of the menopause.”
Rooney’s case made legal history as it was the first ever ruling by a Employment Appeal Tribunal on whether typical menopausal symptoms can amount to a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act.
“Most workplaces do not have policies but that is shifting, more employers want to talk to us about putting policies in place, a conversation that was not taking place even five years ago,” says Sinead Casey. “
We are advising clients on the effect of a claim if it gets that far — it should not.”
While she could not speak on any specific case, the claims include humiliating, demeaning comments, for example, women being referred to as a dinosaur. This is based on her being female and her age, says Casey.
“There is range of problems, with memory, concentration, sitting in a meeting, struggling, these all could be related to menopause but management does not have the knowledge what the symptoms are, do not know how to deal with.
“These are women of a certain longevity, seniority, and it does not fit the natural person who would take a claim, they would be reluctant to take a claim on disability grounds.”
Casey cites one survey where only 29% told their line managers about their symptoms.
“There is a communication issue. And it is not just men but female line managers who are not yet of that age and do not [know] the severity of the symptoms,” she adds.
Apart from communication, simple measures can be taken, adjusting temperatures in the office, asking whether they need to work from home.
“This all fits into this conversation around the great resignation because a lot of companies are focussed on retention of people.
“These could be senior experienced women, where relatively modest, reasonable adjustment, which will lead to better performance or just able to continue in the job.”
The conversation on something that effects half the population is finally happening — but it is from a pretty low starting point, Casey argues.
