For sales ladies like them, the city ordinance requiring employers to provide seats to their female employees and workers is a piece of good news.
It was authored by first district Councilor Edgar Ibuyan, head of the City Council’s committee on labor and employment opportunities. The ordinance, approved on final reading by the City Council, will slap a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 pesos, or an imprisonment of one month to six months, depending on the discretion of the Court, on employers violating the provision.
Straight Up. Salesladies in Davao City’s malls, like the one above at the NCCC department store in Uyanguren, can finally sit down at work. (davaotoday.com photo by Jonald Mahinay)
“What we need is an opportunity to sit down or rest,” Cabig said. “Standing the whole day is so exhausting,” Cabig said.
Ibuyan told Davao Today he used to observe sales ladies standing up for very long period every time he was out window-shopping.
“I pitied the women who are pregnant,” said Ibuyan, who was barely 200 days in office. “With the ordinance, employees can sit down and take a rest without fear,” Ibuyan said.
But although the ordinance allows women temporary reprieve in the workplace, it does not seek to reduce women’s multiple burden at home. In fact, Ibuyan pointed out that the ordinance will help working women serve their families better.
Many of these women are also mothers and wives who could no longer perform their equally important tasks at home after the hard day’s work,” he said. The ordinance will not only protect the health of women workers, but it will also serve the families as well.
Ibuyan said the ordinance will boost Davao city’s fame, not only as a child-friendly city and one of Asia’s most livable, but also as a worker-friendly city.
The ordinance adapted the definitions of employer, employee, persons and wages provided in Article 97 of the Philippine Labor Code. (Marilou M. Aguirre/davaotoday.com)
