As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, Thailand’s Lower House has just squandered an excellent chance to improve gender equality in the workplace.
The Lower House yesterday voted to accept two drafts of a bill on labour protection — one prepared by Worasit Liangprasit, an MP for the Bhumjaithai Party (BJT), and the other by Wanvipa Maison, an MP for the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP).
The assembly threw out a more radical draft prepared by another MFP lawmaker, Sia Jampathong, on the grounds that it would place an excessive financial burden on employers, especially in service industries, which would see their costs spike 30%.
The rejected draft, if implemented, will have made it mandatory to enforce full equality and zero discrimination in terms of work contracts and salaries. In effect, it called for employers to provide their staff with more leave, more welfare, and hire irregular employees on monthly not daily contracts.
It also demanded employers provide breast-feeding spaces and refrigerators for storing breast milk.
The other draft from the MFP — which was accepted in principle — proposed 180 days of maternity leave, with employers paying half the cost and the rest covered by the Social Security Fund (SFF).
This is double the amount of maternity leave offered under the current law, with employers obligated to pay staff for 45 days and the SSF covering half of their daily wage for the entire 90 days.
However, the BJT lawmaker’s version is reportedly likely to be the closest approximation to the final bill. This would extend maternity leave to 98 days, with employers having to pay 49 days’ worth of salary.
It seems that policymakers and legislators the world over are reluctant to promote gender equality and are not that serious about investing in women’s welfare in the workplace.
According to a new World Bank report titled “Women, Business, and the Law”, women enjoy just two-thirds of the legal rights as men and earn 77 cents (27.40 baht) for every US$1 paid to men.
A groundbreaking look into the policies and data of 190 economies shows that none provide equal opportunities for women — not even the wealthiest countries.
Despite 98 economies having enacted legislation mandating equal pay for women for work of equal value, only 35 countries — fewer than one in five — have pay-transparency measures or enforcement mechanisms to address the pay gap.
Yet most countries perform poorly in terms of providing childcare to help working moms.
Today, only 78 economies provide financial or tax support for parents with young kids. Only six have quality standards governing childcare services.
Lest we forget, the theme of International Women’s Day this year is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. According to Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group, the gender gap can raise global GDP by more than 20% — essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade.
That said, paying women more money, giving them enabling facilities, more maternity leave, breastfeeding rooms and improved childcare would be a positive long-term investment.
But our lawmakers’ decision to accept a labour law that favours economic growth and employers seems to be moving in the opposite direction.
Instead of investing in women, they prefer a law that exploits women.