MP Demands Menstrual Leave Be Guaranteed Worker Right
People's Party MP Sia Jamphantong demands menstrual leave be a guaranteed legal right, criticizing the Labor Ministry's draft for making leave days and pay subject
People's Party list MP Sia Jamphantong gave an interview regarding the Labor Ministry's publicized progress on amending the Labor Protection Act, particularly on adding leave rights for menstrual pain. Sia stated the issue was a policy proposal the People's Party had previously pushed to enshrine clearly in law as a basic worker right, but the proposal was voted down by the government majority. The party's principle is straightforward: to create a guarantee that workers suffering menstrual pain can actually take leave to recover as the law promises, without having to beg for sympathy or approval. However, the Labor Ministry's draft instead makes the number of leave days and pay during leave subject to mutual agreement between employee and employer. Sia directly questioned the Labor Minister: if defined this way, how can it be called a worker's right when the final say still rests with the employer's consent? He stressed the structural reality in Thai society that bargaining power between employers and employees is unequal, especially for daily-wage and temporary contract workers who lack union backing. "If the employer refuses to allow leave, or allows it but without pay, what is the worker to do? Must they simply endure the suffering and force their body to keep working?" Sia affirmed to the Minister that this is not a political conflict between opposition and government parties, but a matter of human rights and daily health for all working people, because those who ultimately bear the burden of the law's enforcement are not politicians but workers who wake up every morning to earn a living. Menstrual leave rights must be accessible and usable in practice, not left as rights that must be negotiated ad hoc with supervisors.
