The announcement came on March 8, International Women's Day. "Saint-Ouen, first city in France to experiment with menstrual leave," said the press release of the city of Seine-Saint-Denis. But at the same time or almost, the deputy human resources of the City of Paris made it known that it was impossible, according to him, from a legislative point of view, while the ecologists have filed a wish for the capital to experiment "the implementation of a menstrual leave for the agent.es of the City of Paris who can not carry out their work". What about?

Saint-Ouen has announced that it is experimenting with menstrual leave thanks to the special authorization of absence (ASA) system. "City officers will be able to take up to two days off, adjust their schedule or work from home, without any waiting days being counted. For this, it will be enough a medical certificate attesting to the disease or painful periods, "explains the municipality in its press release.

A legal impossibility?

The City's assistant to human resources, Antoine Guillou, explains that "in the current legislative framework, the law does not allow communities to define leave themselves". He refers to the 2019 law on the transformation of public life, which the City of Paris has paid the price, since it was forced to increase the working time of its agents from 1,552 to 1,607 hours worked per year (basically, to really apply the 35 hours), after having tried unsuccessfully to create new leaves.

Antoine Guillou also said that he was "quite to experiment" with the implementation of menstrual leave and that he intended to use the Paris Council "as a space for expression to ask the government to change things".

Saint-Ouen "in its right"

Good news for him, the way is already open. Contacted by 20 Minutes, the office of Stanislas Guerini, the Minister of Transformation and the Civil Service, said that "special authorizations of absence exist and that it is possible to broaden their reason so that a local authority or a public employer can interpret it to grant menstrual leave".

Specifically, these special authorizations of absence must be the subject of a decree, still not released since 2019, and discussions in the spring. In the meantime, an employer who wants to use them to create a kind of menstrual leave is "in his right," says the minister's office. The City of Paris therefore has free rein.

A growing demand

But for how long? Because the Minister of the Public Service is not in favor of menstrual leave. "We will be able to think about this on a broader level, as a public employer. But for now, this is not the path we want to take. [...] Creating such leave does not solve the problem of women, and could even create inequality during recruitment," Stanislas Guerini explained in an interview with Libération. Not sure that the decree that will soon regulate special authorizations of absence is very conducive to menstrual leave...



In any case, the demand for such leave seems to be growing in France. Two-thirds of French female employees are in favour, according to an Ifop poll published in October. In Toulouse, a company offers it to its employees, as well as to the Socialist Party, or in this social center in Redon. Green MP Sébastien Peytavie is working on the subject with his colleagues Marie-Charlotte Garin and Sandrine Rousseau. But the idea divides, including within feminist associations, Osez le féminisme fearing for example an increase in discrimination in hiring.

  • Paris
  • Leave
  • Menstruation
  • Saint-ouen
  • Ile
  • Wife
  • Women's rights