According to the BBC between 2014 and 2015 Kim Soo-cheon, the former head of South Korea’s Asiana Airlines, turned down 138 requests from 15 flight attendants for menstrual leave, an employment benefit protected by law.
Since 1953, South Korean women have been allowed to take one day a month off if they suffer painful periods.Kim was taken to court over his frequent denials.
He maintained in court that there were “many suspicious cases” of employees requesting menstruation leave around holidays, and argued that the women wouldn’t prove they were menstruating. (The BBC did not report on what such proof would have entailed).In 2017, a lower court found against him, noting that even asking employees to prove they were having their periods.