A “DRAMATIC change” is needed to protect female workers with the menopause and stop them being forced out of the labour market, retail workers urged today.

“Dreadful” Tory ministers, who excluded the condition as a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act, must ensure bosses introduce a menopause policy due to its potentially debilitating symptoms, Usdaw members demanded.

Delegate Karen O’Neill told the retail union’s annual conference in Blackpool that research shows three-quarters of employers lack a medical policy on the condition, which affects most women between the ages of 45 and 55, as there is still no legal requirement to have one.