Employers can face legal consequences for failing to support menopausal women at work: Hannah Strawbridge

Menopausal women are the fastest growing demographic in the workforce and therefore more women than ever will experience the menopause transition whilst working.

The Fawcett Society carried out some research which concluded that for almost half of employees who are experiencing the menopause, those symptoms made them less likely to want to progress in their careers, and for a quarter of them, the menopause would mean they were more likely to retire early.

This shows that menopause symptoms have a significant, negative impact on women’s quality of working life and performance.

The CIPD found further that three in five menopausal women were negatively affected by symptoms at work.

These statistics show that employers can no longer ignore the impact menopausal symptoms have on women at work. The consequence of this, if ignored, will not only impact on women’s rights at work but will affect the global economy because research is clear – if leaders don’t include women and aren’t diverse, efficiency and profitability reduces.

There has been discussion around whether menopause should become a new ‘protected characteristic’ under the Equality Act 2010, which would mean that any employee discriminated against at work on account of the menopause or the symptoms, could lodge a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

As matters currently stand, this is not going to happen. However, in reality, there are a number of other claims menopausal women can bring, if they feel they have been discriminated against or have suffered a detriment or poor treatment, on account of the menopause.

For example, women are bringing claims of discrimination on grounds of sex, and/or age, and/or disability, which may relate to their menopausal symptoms.

Cases on menopause aren’t actually new, although we are seeing more grievances and cases lodged on this basis.

For example, in 2012 an employee succeeded in bringing claims for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination where she had been dismissed for poor performance and she argued that the reason for her poor performance was on account of her menopausal symptoms.

We had a recent case at Han Law where we achieved a settlement for an individual against her previous employer on the basis that comments were made about her being at an age where her memory wasn’t as good as it used to be. Our client felt this was a reference to menopause given her age.

We dealt with another case for a business where we settled a case on behalf of an organisation where one of its employees was a woman of around 50 who was the subject of comments from her manager around her being ‘unmotivated, forgetful, lacklustre’. We advised them that this case could be high risk if it proceeded.

Employers also have a duty of care under Health & Safety legislation to carry out risk assessments and protect their staff, and this will include women who are struggling as a result of menopausal symptoms.

Most large organisations at least have already focused their minds on what practical action they can take, to support their employees who are going through the menopause. However, the key point is that they must be careful about this not turning into a tick-box exercise for marketing or compliance purposes.

Hannah Strawbridge is founder and CEO of Han Law​