MANILA – Fears linked to the pending extended maternity bill are “unfounded” since competency has always been the basis of hiring workers, a legislator said Friday after businessmen claimed that additional benefits could hurt women’s chance of getting hired.
Claims that the 105 paid leaves for working mothers could lead to losses were just threats to prevent President Rodrigo Duterte from signing the bill into a law, Akbayan Representative Tom Villarin said in a speech.
Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) acting president Sergio Ortiz-Luis said Thursday that once the bill is enacted, companies might end up hiring men who cannot avail of such leaves.
“Well, unang una, jobs are based on qualifications and competence of workers does not discriminate kung lalake o babae man. This has been thoroughly discussed, those are really just unfounded fears,” Villarin said.
Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III on Friday also said these allegations were “much of an imagination” because companies hire people based on experience and not their gender.
Based on the experience of other Asian countries, the expanded maternity benefit has led to high morale and loyalty of working mothers, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in a separate statement. (ABS-CBN News)
