Time off for that time of the month?

October 13th, 2006

Earlier this week, The Korea Times reported that 1,400 women in Korea have filed a lawsuit against their employers, “arguing that they should be paid for the days they are allowed to take off during menstruation.” The article goes on to say, “In June 2004 the labor law was revised to allow firms not to pay women taking this special leave.” In other words, the labor law previously called for companies to pay women for this — ahem — special leave. What’s more, this is not the first suit of its kind in Korea and analysts are predicting more to come.

This is mind-blowing on so many levels. We’re happy if we even get more than two paid weeks off a year in this country, let alone maternity and paternity leave. I can hear the men grumbling as they read this, scheming about how they’d adopt monthly sympathy cramps or rally for football-viewing days off. I’m with Salon’s Broadsheet blog, which proposes equal days off for both sexes (assuming, in our little fantasy world, it suddenly becomes de rigeur in the good ole U. S. of A. to claim time off for one’s monthly bleed).

I’m all for equal benefits in the workplace. For starters, it’s fabulous to see more companies embracing the twenty-first century and granting the same benefits to their gay employees as their straight ones (in other words, the same health coverage and family leave). But as a single who doesn’t plan on procreating, it’s always ruffled my feathers that I could not put, say, my mom or my sister on my health plan, or that they couldn’t put me on theirs. I guess I could shack up, wait for the common-law marriage thing to kick in, and then claim my piece of the “more benefits for those headed down the picket-fence path” pie. But I don’t think I should have to make a lifestyle change I wasn’t prepared or planning to make just to get as much money as the woman working in the next cube.

And don’t even get me started on how most companies designate the Christian holidays as their year-end days off. I’m a Heeb, OK? I don’t believe in Jesus (though I did think he was hot in The Last Temptation of Christ.) I have nothing to do on Christmas except tag along with a friend for the family ham dinner, which everyone knows always gives me hamps. I would rather work and subsist on the offerings of the company cafeteria — because god knows, nothing else is open on Dec. 24th and 25th, except 7-Eleven and a couple of greasy takeout places. And I would rather take my days off on Hanukkah, or the Jewish new year, or Passover, so I could actually go visit my mom (who lives a couple hours away) instead of saying, “Sorry, I have to work that day.”

Of course, I guess all this is moot since I’m currently freelancing from my home. But still. I’ve certainly experienced the family/Christian workplace bias before as a temp and wage slave. And I think it’s time to nationalize floating holidays and give the same benefits to singles as we give to those who choose to shack up/and or procreate. C’mon, people — wake up and smell the diversity!

Entry Filed under: Overworked and underpaid