LABOUR: Employers Attempt to Undermine Maternity Protection

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 29 2000 (IPS) - An initiative by employers threatens to severely weaken the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Maternity Protection Convention.

Private sector employers, who form one of the three legs of the ILO along with governments and trade unions, are pushing for a watered-down version of Convention 103.

Pointing out that since its passage in 1952, the convention has only been ratified by 36 of the ILO’s 175 member states, employers argue that a loosening of the regulations established by the convention would lead more states to ratify it.

The attempt to debilitate the convention is part of a wider trend aimed at weakening the binding character of ILO instruments, according to André Linard, with the World Confederation of Labour (CMT), one of the strongest international trade unions.

CMT representative in Geneva Béatrice Fauchère said a weakened convention would place female workers in a dangerous position by leading to the disappearance of maternity protection in the workplace in many countries.

The text of a new convention will be discussed at the May 30- Jun 15 ILO session at the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations.

In the debate ahead of the session, business representatives called for a new convention that would simply establish basic guidelines for maternity protection, while it would be left up to each state to draft more specific provisions.

The initiative is part of an aim to weaken the ILO’s regulatory role, said Fauchére. For employers and certain governments, the catchword seems to be “flexibility” – which translates into refusal to accept clearly defined standards, she added.

But Germany’s Chamber of Employers Associations (BDA) argued that if the interests of companies were ignored, job opportunities for women would be hurt.

The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) criticised the proposed text, arguing that it set such high standards that even fewer governments would ratify the new convention.

The proposed instrument fails to provide a balance between maternity protection and financial repercussions for employers, which will lead to a negative impact on the generation of jobs and on the goal of a higher standard of living for all, the USCIB maintained.

The Swedish government and delegates of Spain’s ‘Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras’ (CCOO) and ‘Unión General de Trabajadores’ (UGT) central trade unions sponsored proposals on parental leave and the rights of the father.

But although Sweden pointed out that 36 countries already had legal provisions on parental leave, those initiatives were not incorporated into the draft text because a number of states urged that the convention be limited to basic questions of maternity protection.

In the debate running up to the session that begins Tuesday, discrepancies also arose with respect to the definition of the beneficiaries of maternity protection.

The draft document, which enjoys the backing of a majority of countries, states that all women and children, with no discrimination whatsoever, enjoy the right to maternity protection.

But the government of Jordan argued that the term “woman” should be defined as “married woman” and the term “child” as “legitimate child of parents joined in matrimony.”

The government of Pakistan said it could not endorse a convention that applied to single mothers, which would run counter to the country’s laws and religion.

The Federation of Employers of Pakistan warned that no Muslim country could ratify the new convention unless the term “woman” explicitly excluded single mothers.

India’s Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) trade union also said it was opposed to single women enjoying maternity protection. “A permissive society offering those benefits to such women should not be promoted,” stated the Hindu trade union.

But the CMT argued that the draft convention should categorically reject discriminatory definitions of women and children.

The trade union said the proposed modifications represented a major weakening of the rights of female workers, a setback not only with respect to Convention 103, but also regarding existing national laws.

A special ILO commission will discuss the question of maternity protection during the first two weeks of the session, while the final text will be debated by the full International Labour Conference in the last few days.