L&T becomes first major corporate house to announce one-day paid menstrual leave

Company’s chairman and managing director S N Subrahmanyan recently faced flak for comments asking employees to put in 90-hours a week and not keep staring at their wives

Mumbai: In a first for a major corporate house, engineering, procurement and construction major Larsen and Toubro on Thursday announced a one-day paid menstrual leave for women employees.

The move will benefit about 5,000 women employees at the city-headquartered company.

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Company’s chairman and managing director S N Subrahmanyan announced the move at a company event to celebrate International Women’s Day, sources said.

Exact details of how to implement the announcement will be formulated by the relevant officials shortly, they said.

The announcement is only applicable to the employees of the parent L&T and not for its subsidiaries engaged in financial services or technology, they said.

L&T has 60,000 employees, of which 9 per cent or about 5,000 are women, who will benefit from the move. The announcement comes within weeks of the company’s top leader facing flak for comments asking employees to put in 90-hours a week and not keep staring at their wives.

The company had later defended the remarks made during an internal virtual meeting as being in line with its nation-building mandate.

Some companies like Swiggy and Zomato have made similar announcements on menstrual leaves in the past, but major business houses are yet to announce similar initiatives.

Four States — Bihar, Odisha, Sikkim and Kerala — have made provisions for menstrual leaves for their employees.

The Supreme Court had last year suggested the government formulate a policy on the issue.