Workplaces not suitable for women

PESHAWAR: A monitoring on the status of working women on Wednesday revealed that majority of the workplaces did not provide conducive environment to the working women.

The details of the monitoring were shared with the participants of an event organised on the status of working women here.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Deputy Speaker Assembly and Senator-elect Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, women lawmakers Rashida Riffat, Sobia Khan, Nighat Orakzai and others were present on the occasion.

The findings revealed that most of the workplaces did not implement the relevant labour laws, which have detrimental effects on the working women.

The Women Workers Alliance, advocating rights of working women, had conducted the study with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Alliance was facilitated by the United Rural Development Organisation (URDO) and Trust Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) provided technical assistance for the study under a project ‘Women Action for Better Workplaces.’

Its’ teams visited various workplaces including government and private sectors offices to get first-hand information.

Up to 200 working women were interviewed. It was found out that the working women were the worst affected by the non-compliance with labour laws in the targetted employment sectors.

The monitoring showed that the violations of labour laws in the government sector institutions were assumed to be less than that the other private sectors and industries.

It revealed that over 58 percent of public sector organisations did not have committees to protect women against sexual harassment. There were instances where such committees were ineffective.

The code of conduct against sexual harassment was not displayed in more than 85 percent of the public offices, the findings revealed.

The findings said that 83 percent private sector organisations violated the Maternity Benefits Act and women were not paid maternity benefits in any form.

The alliance demanded effective implementation of the Maternity Benefits Act and action against the employers violating the labour laws.

It said that there were no washroom/toilet facilities in at least 45percent of the government departments and 15 per cent of the private sector while 8 percent workplaces did not have daycare and breast feeding facilities.

The finding said it must be declared compulsory for these organisations to arrange separate washrooms, day-care and breastfeeding places for the working women.

The findings said that approximately 58 percent of workplaces did not comply with the Anti-Sexual Harassment at Workplaces Act 2010.

It called for constituting committees on protection against sexual harassment at workplaces and make functional the existing ones.