By Catharine Beaton

Having perfect attendance is an expectation many employers have of their employees; many even offer incentives to their employees to encourage 100% attendance at work. These rewards can include shopping vouchers, meals out and much more. My employers use this rewards system, which I thought was a great idea – until I became a victim of what I believe is discrimination.

I work within a childcare setting, working through school terms and over the holidays to provide engaging activities and care for children. Recently, my workplace rewarded all their staff with 100% attendance over the last academic term with an Amazon gift card. I did not receive one because I had taken one day off to go to the hospital. One day. For a procedure that couldn’t be delayed. This entirely necessary, urgent hospital trip cost me my ‘perfect’ attendance and my chance of receiving a bonus.

The procedure I underwent is something that only uterus owners can undergo: I had to have some cells removed from my cervix. Someone assigned male at birth could never experience this treatment as a patient, and it was necessary to safeguard my future health. So the fact that undergoing it cost me my bonus is discrimination. It may seem like splitting hairs to some people, but I pride myself on the job I do, and I don’t believe that I should have been done out of the recognition for my work because of one day off for a medical emergency.

My experience in this situation is not, sadly, uncommon. A study by the Office for National Statistics revealed that women are 42% more likely to take sick days than men. There are several reasons as to why this is.

Women still shoulder the burden of childcare, therefore if their child is off school with sickness they may ‘pull a sickie’ to look after their child. The ‘deception’ regarding the need for time off is a response to the patriarchal devaluation of women’s industrial input once they’ve had children. On a related note, women are two-thirds less likely to receive a promotion than a man at work if they have a child. This is still a sickening reality.

This burden of care extends more widely to cover unwell or ageing family members. Typically (this is a gendered generalisation I realise, but the point stands all the same) women take on the role of carer for their relatives as they need it. Based on statistics released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 579,850 women are in receipt of Carers Allowance, compared to 223,820 men. On that statistic alone, it becomes apparent that women are still taking on additional care responsibilities, and this in turn has a knock-on impact on their work attendance.

Caring for ailing relatives has a huge impact on the emotional and physical well-being of an individual. As someone with first-hand experience of how special and yet utterly devastating caring for a loved one can be – to say nothing of it being almost entirely unaffordable! – I know how hard it is to care for someone you love while trying to balance work, studies, a social life and, in my case, a lockdown too! Attendance bonuses don’t recognise these situations that women find themselves in, which drives a wedge between women and the workplace.

It has been suggested that men often just continue to work through their illness, whereas women take time off to recover or seek medical aid. Whether this is a positive or a negative is down to the individual to decide. But after the Covid-19 pandemic, surely we are all aware of our collective community responsibility surrounding making responsible health and care choices?

Even when women seek medical care, they are facing discrimination. Reports have discovered that there is a gender gap in the services and treatments that women receive compared to men. One report by the government goes so far as to say that healthcare is ‘systematically discriminating against women, leaving them chronically misunderstood, mistreated and misdiagnosed.’

People with uteruses may need time off due to menstrual conditions. Painful, heavy and irregular periods, endometriosis, PCOS, ovarian cysts… the list of reasons why these individuals with uteruses may need time off during their period is virtually endless, and the experience of pain and shame that still stigmatises this natural occurrence is very real.

A survey by BUPA indicates that 23% of women have had to take time off work due to their period and that 36% of these women lied about the reason why they were off. This is startling but once again demonstrates how employers offering attendance-based rewards discriminate against certain people. Periods cannot be avoided, and I’m sure many of us can confirm (I certainly know that I can) that work completed while in the throes of a painful, heavy period is not of top quality. Sometimes time off results in better work being completed upon return, at the cost of attendance.

Some women may have babies. Legally, women are entitled to paid time off for medical/antenatal appointments and paid maternity leave. Yet still these appointments count as absences, despite their essential nature and the legal protection they have.

Offering rewards for 100% attendance does not necessarily take any of these reasons for absence into account, and therefore discriminates against the employees who experience these situations. I underwent a medical procedure experienced only by uterus owners and consequently lost my chance of receiving an attendance-based bonus despite my otherwise impeccable attendance. This feels entirely like discrimination.

The Equality Act 2010 strives to serve as a vehicle of precisely what it says in the title: equality. Some employers adhere to the suggestions and guidelines surrounding time off/attendance when regarding pregnancy and disability. My employers do not. They follow the law to the letter, but the law isn’t perfect yet – suggestions can be ignored.

There are ways to counterbalance this discrimination. Employers could overlook some absences and still award attendance bonuses to their hard-working employees if they’ve had time off for medical appointments or chronic long-term condition flare-ups. If my employers were more inclusive in their thinking, and more generous towards the plights of the women (like me) who work for them, then I would have had my bonus. I would feel like a valued member of the team. Instead, I feel let down by a system that supports only the most able-bodied and male individuals. Honestly, I’m fed up with it.