Pregancy: whose choice?

Thursday, 01 November 2007 16:22

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In some garment factories, women applying for work are asked if they are married, going out with men, planning to have children, and using birth control. Some employers will only hire unmarried women with no children and some make each woman sign an agreement not to get pregnant as long as she works at the factory. Compulsory tests at the time of recruiting are common - women who are pregnant or refuse the test are not hired.

Workers who become pregnant may try to hide their condition as long as possible, resulting in poor anti-natal care and potential exposure to work hazards that can cause birth defects, premature birth, low-weight babies and other problems. In a Polish factory surveyed by partners of the Clean Clothes Campaign, pregnant workers hid their pregnancy up to two weeks before delivery. This means they were unable to access benefits to which they are legally entitled but they felt that at least that way they minimised the risk of dismissal 1.

In 2004, all pregnant garment workers in a factory in Swaziland were ordered to write a resignation letter so the factory would not have to meet the legal requirements of maternity leave 2. In China, pregnant footwear factory workers have been fired for the same reason.

Reported harassment of pregnant workers includes verbal abuse, higher production quotas, longer work hours and more difficult tasks, such as standing instead of sitting or transfer to a hotter work area. Philippino trade unions report that pregnant workers were forced to work overtime, including at night, in an export processing zone of Cavite, while a worker in another garment factory had a miscarriage inside a company comfort room after being forbidden to take leave. According to the report, garment factory bosses were also known to prevent workers from taking maternity leave or pay if they wanted to return to work after the baby’s birth 3.The ICFTU reports in 2003 that while they are legally entitled to three months’ maternity leave, Indonesian women workers had been fired for taking it.4

Notes

[1] Workers’voices: The Situation of women in the Eastern European and Turkish garment industries, Clean Clothes Campaign (2005).

[2] Clean Clothes Campaign Newsletter 21, May 2006.

[3] Asserting workers’rights in Phiilppines sweatshops, KMP (Trade Union Congress of the Philippines), Nov 2003.

[4] www.cleanclothes.org/ftp/East_and_South_East_Asia_Regional_Research_Rep.pdf (2003) Page 35.