Bill widening scope of prohibited discrimination acts vs women gets House nod

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — A proposal to amend the Labor Code of the Philippines by widening the scope of actions that qualify as gender-based discrimination against women has been approved on the third and final reading at the House of Representatives.

House Bill No. 4479 of Calamba City Rep. Charisse Anne Hernandez was approved at the plenary during Monday’s session, with 248 lawmakers voting in the affirmative, with zero negative votes and abstentions.

Hernandez’s bill seeks to explicitly state that favoring a male employee over a female one regarding the provision of assignments and employment benefits due to gender will be deemed a violation of the law.

Favoring male employees due to their gender, should a company decide to dismiss or retrench personnel, will also be part of the proposed amendments.

If enacted, Article 135 of the Labor Code of the Philippines would now read like this, in underlined letters as the amended portions: “It shall be unlawful for any employer to discriminate against any woman employee concerning terms and conditions of employment solely on account of her sex or characteristics of her sex, whether actual or presumed.”

Portion b of Article 135 also states that: “Favoring a male employee over a female employee with respect to assignment, promotion, employment benefits, training opportunities, study and scholarship grants solely on account of their sex or characteristics of their sex, whether actual or presumed; and “(C) favoring a male employee over a female employee with respect to dismissal of personnel or the application of any retrenchment policy of the employer solely on account of their sex or characteristics of their sex, whether actual or presumed.”

In the explanatory note of the original proposal from Hernandez, she said that the bill is important as discrimination in the workforce still exists even in modern and more liberal times.

Despite advancements made by the Philippine society in terms of the treatment of women in the labor sector, the lawmaker said there would always be room for improvement.

“In this day and age, discrimination in the labor market towards women remains pervasive nothwithstanding protection given by the Constitution and other laws.  According to the World Economic Forum as provided in its Global Gender Gap Report 2021, the Philippines ranked 17th out of 156 countries in narrowing the gender gap in terms of economic participation and opportunities,” she said.

“This shows progress, however, we must further improve and continuously ramp up our efforts in eliminating discrimination against women which still exists in the ordinary workplace,” she added.

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