2 min read

‘Period Leave’ For Zomato Employees

10 days of ‘period leave’ annually for all menstruating employees was recently announced by Zomato, an online food delivery start-up in India. Cisgender women, non-binary individuals, and transmasculine men will also be able to avail the benefit. The leave is in cognizance to period cramps, and other menstruation difficulties faced by the employees every month.

Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal wrote in a blog post “At Zomato, we want to foster a culture of trust, truth, and acceptance. Starting today, all women (including transgender people) at Zomato can avail up to 10 days of period leaves in a year”. He further wrote, “There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave. You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day."

In the same blog post, while addressing male employees, he wrote“Our female colleagues expressing that they are on their period leave shouldn’t be uncomfortable for us…I know that menstrual cramps are very painful for a lot of women — and we have to support them through it if we want to build a truly collaborative culture at Zomato.”

"There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave. You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day."

Zomato is known for its progressive, all-inclusive, and employee-friendly HR policies. In June 2019, the company announced 26 weeks of paid leave for new fathers. Goyal said, "There won’t be even an iota of difference in parental leave policy for men and women at Zomato going forward."

Deepinder Goyal sure knows how to set right precedence and incorporate changes that renowned companies often are scared to take. The parental leave introduced by Zomato was a rare example of gender-neutral paternity policies in the country that cater to non-birthing, adoptive and same-sex parents alike.