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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
Women make up 40 percent of the national labor
force. Most of them were forced into becoming workers by the need to
provide money for their family’s needs.
Of the country’s 33.2 million employed
persons, some 12.8 million are women, according to the October 2006
Labor Force Survey. Unemployed women were estimated at 936,000.
Of the total 12.8 million employed women in
October 2006, around 3.5 million (27.7 percent) were single; 7.9
million (61.6 percent) were married; and 1.4 million (10.7 percent)
were widowed, divorced or separated.
Some 2.4 million were unpaid women workers. A
large fraction of the unpaid workers, both women and men, were
laborers and unskilled workers (78.4 percent) in the agriculture
sector (which employ 73.7 percent of all workers).
Observers have noted a rapid “womanization”
of the country’s work force, with more women coming out to join
both formal and informal labor sectors.
This has driven the country’s biggest labor
group, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), to seek
stronger protection for female workers.
The Philippines is a signatory to many
international labor conventions and agreements that seek to
eliminate gender biases at the workplace. The Philippine Labor Code
prohibits night work for women, requires employers to provide
daycare facilities for children, maternity leave benefits and family
planning services.
Labor laws also prohibit discrimination against
women employees with regard to employment terms, compensation,
training and promotion. Employers cannot exact a vow from women not
to marry or get pregnant. Women employees cannot be dismissed,
demoted or in other ways penalized for getting pregnant.
Still, TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar said both the
Senate and the House of Representatives should push for a new Labor
Code that is even more women-friendly.
Women rights advocates want legislators to give
the highest priority to the passage of new laws advancing the rights
and welfare of working women and raise their job conditions to the
best global standards. For one thing, more “teeth” is needed to
implement provisions of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995, the
Salary Standardization Law, and the laws against discrimination in
the workplace.
“Our senators and congressmen are duty-bound
to alleviate the plight of women, who are saddled with work in the
office or factory in addition to their chores at home,” Aguilar
said. The combined responsibilities add up the multiple burden of
women, especially working wives and mothers, causing more stress and
tension and bad effects on their health.
“Female labor force participants are grossly
disadvantaged. Most of our jobless and underemployed are women. They
experience discrimination in employment in that in many cases, they
are the last to be hired, and the first to be fired,” he said.
Aguilar said lawmakers should attend urgently to
the bills augmenting maternity leave benefits, requiring jobsite
daycare facilities and nursing rooms, and granting free immunization
to employees and their dependents.
“Female workers are definitely entitled to
longer employment leave benefits due to double workload and
pregnancy,” he said.
He likewise cited the need for new legislation
that would require provisions for paralegal training on women’s
rights and seminars on the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law. The Trade
Union Congress, he said, has long been campaigning for inclusion of
the salient provisions of the Anti-Sexual Harrassment Law in
collective bargaining agreements.
The Anti-Sexual Harassment Law punishes the
sexual exploitation or harassment of women by employers and
management executives.
TUCP also seeks approval of bills expanding the
scope of prohibited acts of discrimination against women by the
employer; providing for the training and skills enhancement of
female staff; and instituting improved occupational health and
safety measures in industries where women comprise the bulk of
personnel.
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