SCOTTISH Water has announced it will make sanitary products freely available to their employees.
The decision is in support of the Scottish Government’s programme to make sanitary products widely available in public buildings and organisations.
It also follows a series of visits to Rwanda and Malawi where Scottish Water employees saw WaterAid projects aiming to improve basic toilet and menstrual hygiene management facilities in communities.
Employees returned to Scotland with an enhanced awareness of the effect that a lack of effective facilities or products can have on individuals.
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Shirley Campbell, Scottish Water’s director for people, who visited Rwanda earlier this year, said: “I saw for myself how millions of people cope with their periods without a safe or private toilet – often with no toilet at all. We’re working with WaterAid to help change this.
“We might not have such challenging conditions here in Scotland but menstrual hygiene and dignity at work are very important issues and I am proud that we are launching this development.
“Scottish Water has decided that providing sanitary products in our toilet areas for employees who need them is the right thing to do. We want to ensure that sanitary products for staff are as widely available as toilet paper and that their availability is accepted as the norm in the same way.
“Providing sanitary products for any employee who needs access to them and being able to do so readily and for free, ensures a basic level of dignity at work that we should all expect in 21st century Scotland.”
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