Gender Sensitive Employment Relations:
An Analysis of Philippine Labor Laws and HR Policies for Women Workers
Gender Sensitive Employment Relations:
An Analysis of Philippine Labor Laws and HR Policies for Women Workers
Aletha Ma. I. Trasporte
AMIT Consultancy
E-mail:
Ma. Perpetua P. Pura
COCOLIFE
E-mail:
Abstract
This paper analyses women employment regulations and HR policies affecting women workers in selected companies in the Philippines. It offers an overview of how labor regulations are translated to the HR policies being implemented in the companies studied.
The study also included the application of employment regulations providing special protection to women workers and whether companies have plans to implement in the near future.
I. Introduction
The analysis of the conditions under which women work and the ways their work is defined are necessary both for explaining inequality and shedding light on the issues in which women’s position in the workforce can be challenged.
In the recent years, protection of women workers in the Philippines has become a major concern in the field of employment relations. The emergence of women participation in the world of “professional paid work“ has necessitated the provision of stronger social protection for this sector since women still carry with them the traditional role of “home and family” welfare. For the past five years, women employment rose to 42.5%( as of October 2004) in the formal sector within the national capital region. In response to the growth of women workers in the labor sector, the government has instituted new laws over the years pertaining to their rights and protection as workers.
This research study is area based such that Metro Manila was chosen for the survey where most of the companies are located. The research team intended to select companies that have a large force of women workers however, due to time and budget constraints, facility in locating respondents became a very crucial constraint.
This research is an ongoing case study, addressing the application of gender sensitive laws on women in the Philippines. The study proceeds along four different but interrelated phases. The first phase involves the formulation of the research design and the construction of the research tools that included the survey questionnaire. This phase defines the direction, focus, methodology and expected outputs of the study.
The second phase identifies and explores the profile of target respondents. Initially, the research team planned to interview women workers from all sectors but because of the constraints mentioned above it was decided that for the purpose of this research only HR officers of companies will be surveyed.
The third phase is the interview part which involves sending survey questionnaires to target respondents and doing face to face interviews. The fourth phase involves data analysis. Data gathered from the survey was tabulated and processed with percentages presented.
The target respondents were chosen at random however, consideration is that there should be more women workers in their employ.
II. Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations
Analyses of labor laws affecting women
The laws on working women are stipulated in Title III Book III of the Labor Code of the Philippines which contains specific provisions regarding Working Conditions for Special Groups of Employees ( e.g. Women, Minors, Househelpers, Homeworkers, etc.) There are nine specific provisions in the Philippine Labor which embodies laws for the protection of women workers such as:
Art. 130. Nightwork prohibition
Art. 131. Exceptions on the nightwork prohibitions
Art. 132. Facilities for women
Art. 133. Maternity Benefits for Women (Several IRAs heve amended this. RA 7322
amended this provision )
Art. 134. Family Planning services, incentives for family planning
Art. 135. Discrimination prohibited
Art. 136. Stipulation against marriage
Art. 137. Prohibited acts
Art. 138. Classification of certain women workers
Sexual Hasrrasment
RA 8972 – An Act Providing for Solo Parents and their Children with the IRR was just implemented recently and is not yet incorporated in the Labor Code.
The Bureau of Women and Young Workers is the primary agency of the Department of Labor and Employment in charge of the development and implementation of policies, standards, plans and programs affecting working women and young workers in the Philippines. This Bureau develops, monitors and evaluates the implementation of special programs for women workers. The same Bureau is involved in the conceptualization of the Philippine Development Plan for Women when it was tapped by the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) to be one of the pilot agencies in its conduct of Gender Sensitive Training (GST) Programs.
Going over the Gender Development Plan which was formulated in 2002 it seems most of the issues concerning women workers have been identified with corresponding programs set in place.
The Solo Parent Act which was just implemented in 2003 targets mostly working women as beneficiaries. However, there seems to be a limited implementation of the law such that to date there are only 5 pilot areas or Regions whose implementation of the solo parent act is closely monitored by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). They are Region IV A, Region IV B, NCR, Region V and Region X. Specifically the Social Technology Bureau of the DSWD is doing this in coordination with the Local Government Units (LGUs) who were mandated to issue solo parent cards signed by the Municipal mayors in the locality so that card holders can avail of benefits intended for this group of women.
Implementation of the Solo Parent act is being coordinated in an inter-agency committee headed by the DSWD. The other agencies are Department of Health (DOH), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Results of the Survey
Profile of companies surveyed
A total of 8 out of 15 companies responded to the survey whose range of employees is from 20 to 250 with 2 from the garments industry, 2 from call centers, 1 from the food manufacturing, 1 from the pharmaceutical and semiconductor companies consumer and 2 from nutritional products companies.
Eighty (80%) of companies have workers between 21 to 34 years of age while ( 20%) belongs to the 35 and above age bracket; 60% of female employees of all companies belong to rank and file positions with 10-20% of the employees in the managerial and technical positions. 60% employees of one particular company are contractual.
Based on the data culled from the responses of HR officers of the companies targeted for the study, it seems that approximately 60% of the provisions of the labor code for working women are not incorporated in their HR policies. Except for the provisions concerning facilities for women, and maternity leave benefits all the other provisions are not contained in company policy manuals. About 90% of respondents lack awareness of some of the labor laws especially the provision for solo parents.
Practice of night work prohibition has become “ exempted from the law “because of the emergence in recent years of industries most of them multinational companies such as call centers.
Eighty (80%) of respondents have no plans to adopt the laws in their HR policies nor have plans to create a special incentives or projects for women employees within the next two years.
Companies were reluctant to cite violations pertaining to women labor law. There are two possible reasons for this reaction: a) companies treat these cases as confidential and protect their reputation as it might be taken against them. b) the culture of protecting women reputation in cases or violations of such cases like anti- sexual harassment, favoring solo parents law, discrimination against women and others.
Special incentives for working women are not common and that very few companies are implementing incentives more than what is prescribed in the labor code. Multinational companies have the advantage of implementing additional incentives/projects for women maybe because they are extending to the Philippines the incentives provided for in their mother companies.
A multinational semi-conductor company that responded to the survey cited additional special incentives for women employees like Responsible Parenthood and Maternal Health and Childcare services, Prevention of Breast Cancer and Program on the Benefits of Breastfeeding. Two call center companies interviewed recently revealed that they had started a daycare center in their facility where the services are availed mostly by women employees.
Conclusions
Based on the study there is a limited awareness among selected companies regarding labor laws for women including special provision protecting the rights of women workers. There is a need to increase the policy consideration measures at the national and local levels to monitor and assess the extent to which companies have been able to look into the applications of the laws concerning women employees in companies.
The evidence between having the law and its implementation is not very well established. While the government seems to have a very comprehensive grasp of the concerns and the issues affecting women workers and had come up with strategic actions to address such concerns as shown in the Department of Labor and Employment Gender and Development Plan in 2002 most of the companies surveyed seem to have very little awareness of such plans.
Considering that in the Philippines 50% of household population are in the labor force and 45% of these are women, the biggest challenge is to be able to implement these women labor law at the firm level to realize its effectiveness. Although recent survey conducted by the Social Weather Station in 1989 pointed that the Filipino views about gender roles have not really changed, the population of women workers continue to rise because of economic realities. Therefore, the implications of adopting appropriate and special HR policies for women are more imminent than before. With the projection that women labor force will exceed the male workers in the future, then, the protection of women workers is imperative.
In closing, it should be noted that companies who responded to this initial research are composed of industries in the formal sector and are located within the national capital region. The potential for follow-up research in the comparative analysis of application of gender sensitive laws in different industries remain to be to be another opportunity for validating the results of this preliminary study.
Aletha Ma. I. Trasporte Ma. Perpetua P. Pura 1