Reminder: law entitles workers to free family planning services

A nationwide employers’ group has acknowledged that a lot of big companies are violating the labor code’s requirement for them to provide free family planning services to employees, and that the passage of the reproductive health bill would address this concern.

Roland Moya, deputy secretary general of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), explained at a forum Wednesday that Article 134 of the Philippine labor code, requires companies with at least 200 employees to maintain clinics that will provide employees free family planning services, both natural and artificial.

However, he said, many of the companies don’t follow the law since nobody has been penalized for violating it.

Passing a reproductive health bill, which has been pending in Congress for seven years, would compel employers to provide their female workers adequate information on family planning and access to reproductive health services.

“Having a national reproductive health program would add teeth to the current law, since it clearly mandates employers, even those with less than 200 employees, to provide free delivery of reproductive health care services to its employees,” Moya said during the 27th Usapang Population Development.

The pending measure, House Bill 5043, oblige employers to “provide the free delivery of reasonable quantity of reproductive health care services, supplies and devices to all workers, more particularly women workers.”

Companies where employees have no organized unions have the same obligation.

Moya said that implementing a comprehensive family planning law is more critical now since more Filipino women enter the workforce. As of 2006, the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics recorded that there are 12.8 million Filipino women employed in the country, from the estimated 12.4 million in 2005.

ECOP project officer Rhodora Buenaventura said that many of the women workers can be found in economic zones, mainly in industries of canning, garments, and semiconductors.

Buenaventura explained that work productivity of women is affected if they lack information on how to space their children and if they have no access to reproductive health services.

“We know that mothers are not healthy when they have no proper child spacing. There are many maternity-related incidents, like mothers or infants getting sick. This means more absences, making them less productive at work,” Buenaventura said.

She also said that mothers who take their leave from work means higher costs for companies, since companies are forced to hire and train new workers.

ECOP, composed of 50 industry associations and 500 corporate members, encourage its members to implement their own reproductive health program inside the workplace.

Aside from providing female workers prenatal check-ups and lactation centers, the program should also consist of information campaign and trainings for human resource persons, clinicians, and workers, Moya said.

“Employees do not realize that some of their basic concerns are actually related to reproductive health. It takes sufficient knowledge and information to recognize the reproductive health concerns of employees especially our women workers who have specific RH needs,” Moya said. (–Lilita Balane, Newsbreak)