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A. March is Endometriosis Action Month. The charity Endometriosis UK encourages employers to break the taboo and stigma around menstrual and female health conditions by developing a culture that supports those affected, arguing that the employer ultimately benefits through improved staff engagement and effectiveness. Stacie Cheadle, Croner-I Technical Writer, provides advice to an employer who wants to know about supporting their employee with endometriosis.
My client is a medium sized business in the creative industry. Collaboration and teamwork are important to them, and they find the best way to achieve this is to have their staff together in the office. One of their employees has disclosed that they have endometriosis, and they’ve asked to work from home on days when their symptoms are bad. What does my client need to think about?
Endometriosis affects one in 10 women and those assigned female at birth. Around 1.5 million people in the UK are living with the condition and experience symptoms such as chronic pelvic pain, bladder and bowel problems, heavy and painful periods, fatigue, depression or anxiety, abdominal bloating, nausea and difficulties getting pregnant.
The symptoms of endometriosis vary significantly between individuals and can leave some suffering with severe symptoms which impact daily activities. For many, flare-ups pose huge difficulties as there are no triggers or patterns which individuals can prepare for and manage. As such, your client must treat employees as individuals, dealing with them on a case-by-case basis. It’s highly recommended that your client sets this out in an Endometriosis Support Policy that employees can access to see what they can expect whilst at work in relation to their condition.
Endometriosis has the potential to be classed as a disability under the Equality Act 2010 if it has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. If this is the case for your client’s employee, they have a legal duty to consider reasonable adjustments and could face a disability discrimination claim if they don’t.
Your client’s employee has asked for flexible working.
Adopting an accommodating attitude to flexible working arrangements allows employees with chronic conditions like endometriosis to feel confident and comfortable in the workplace. On days where they experience a flare-up, allowing homeworking means they can maintain normal output and avoid a loss in pay but work in conditions that alleviate pain and discomfort.
Whilst you client may feel this goes against how they usually work, they should strongly consider it and work with the employee to find ways to alleviate any inconvenience caused by them not being in the office. This could be by exploring video conferencing software and identifying work that practically is best done when the employee is away from the noise and distractions of the workplace.
Doing this will benefit the employee and could be part of your client’s duty to make reasonable adjustment. Your client will also reap the rewards of not having to find last-minute cover or face wider problems associated with long-term absences.
Other useful flexible working arrangements worth considering are hybrid working, changes to working hours and start/finish times and providing lighter duties or amended responsibilities. Whether or not these are reasonable can be found through discussions with the employee.
Other reasonable adjustments recommended by Endometriosis UK include reducing workloads, allowing extra breaks, providing special equipment, giving time off for medical appointments (including when these are last minute) and adjusting absence trigger points. Holding regular welfare meetings with the employee is the best way to identify what support measures would be the most effective.
