The company is one of Northern Ireland’s largest private sector employers
One of Northern Ireland’s largest private sector employers has denied claims of failing to provide adequate menstrual products for female employees.
Spirit Aerosystems employs over 3,700 workers 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.
The employee, who did not wish to be named, said: “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.
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“This has the potential to lead to embarrassing situations for female employees. I believe this is a potential example of workplace discrimination.”
The employee added: “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.”
A photograph provided to Belfast Live 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.
In 2023, the British Standard Institute, the UK’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.
The standards recommend, among other measures, that employers should provide access to menstrual products.
A spokesperson for Spirit AeroSystems said: “Feminine hygiene products are supplied with other consumables to our women’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.”
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