{"id":347305,"date":"2025-08-15T19:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347305\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T19:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:34:11","slug":"northern-ireland-firm-denies-rationing-menstrual-products-for-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347305\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland firm denies rationing menstrual products for employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The company is one of Northern Ireland&#8217;s largest private sector employers<\/p>\n<p>19:50, 15 Aug 2025Updated 20:05, 15 Aug 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_GettyImages-629428283.jpg\" alt=\"Menstrual products\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Menstrual products(Image:  BSIP\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">One of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/northern-ireland\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Northern Ireland&#039;sLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Northern Ireland&#8217;s<\/a> largest private sector employers has denied claims of failing to provide adequate menstrual products for female employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Spirit Aerosystems employs over <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/business-news\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">3,700 workers<\/a> at its five sites in Northern Ireland. An employee at the Belfast manufacturing site had claimed that the firm had failed to provide menstrual products at the workplace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The employee, who did not wish to be named, said: &#8220;There are only a small number of toilets available at what is quite a large workplace and, for some time now, the company has not provided any menstrual products.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/whats-on\/be\/first-look-inside-derry-girls-32285519\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"32285519\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First look inside Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson&#8217;s Irish wedding<\/a>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/news\/tv\/bbc-strictly-come-dancing-announces-32280775\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"32280775\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BBC Strictly Come Dancing announces NI actor and DJ as contestant for 2025 series<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;This has the potential to lead to embarrassing situations for female employees. I believe this is a potential example of workplace discrimination.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The employee added: &#8220;Management has been approached about this issue before and, in response, one pad and one tampon has been left per toilet, which is inadequate given the number of employees.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A photograph provided to <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Belfast Live<\/a> showed a basket left atop a waste bin in a public toilet containing a single tampon and a single sanitary pad. While not a legal requirement, most workplaces in the UK do provide menstrual products for its employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">In 2023, the British Standard Institute, the UK&#8217;s national standards body, announced a landmark menstruation, menstrual health and menopause in the workplace standard that was developed alongside large businesses and representatives from trade unions, Acas, and Endometriosis UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The standards recommend, among other measures, that employers should provide access to menstrual products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A spokesperson for Spirit AeroSystems said: &#8220;Feminine hygiene products are supplied with other consumables to our women&#8217;s toilets across our Belfast sites. These supplies are managed by our cleaning teams, but employees can also log replenishment requests with our Facilities helpdesk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"hereLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> and <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=1342b3be-3db3-461a-a6b4-c60bfcaa13da&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"sign up to our daily newsletterLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The company is one of Northern Ireland&#8217;s largest private sector employers 19:50, 15 Aug 2025Updated 20:05, 15 Aug&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[3085,1144,16,15,1292],"class_list":{"0":"post-347305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-business-news","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-women"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115034460277279956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}