A women's rights advocate in the Davao City council urges all women who are having a hard time getting hired because of the Expanded Maternity Leave Law to approach the city council and tell their stories.
Councilor Mary Joselle Villafuerte, committee on health chair, said this is tantamount to being discriminated because of their gender.
“The city has a local ordinance on anti-discrimination and we are strongly enforcing it, since it can fall as being discriminated because of their gender then they can come to the city council,” she said in a phone interview yesterday, March 5, 2019.
Villafuerte is an advocate of women especially on their health.
Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. president Arturo Milan said the chamber has not received complaints against nor support for the new law from any of its members, adding that he cannot speak for those businessmen or entrepreneurs who are not members of the chamber.
In a news report on the ABS-CBN website dated February 22, 2019, Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines president Sergio Ortiz-Luiz Jr. said “companies might resort to hiring men instead of women after the Expanded Maternity Leave bill, which grants working mothers with 105 days of paid leave, was enacted into law.”
In the same report, he was quoted as saying that, “Although merong [anti] discriminatory provisions sa ating mga batas, kung ikaw naman 'yung employer at may choice ka later on kung kukuha ka ng empleyado, siyempre hindi mo kukunin 'yung mga madalas mabuntis at magbabayad ka ng napakatagal.”