Unit 2: Gender issues in the world of work

Labour market gender issues by country

Papua New Guinea

ILO/UNDP TSS1 Report Papua New Guinea: Towards Equality and Protection for Women Workers in the Formal Sector

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Scope of the Study

• The purpose of this study is to examine and assess the position of women workers in formal sector paid employment in Papua New Guinea in order to determine the key barriers to women's equal participation in paid employment in the formal sector and to make policy recommendations designed to improve the position of women and increase their contribution to overall economic activity.

• The study is motivated by the general observation that in Papua New Guinea, as elsewhere in the world, women lack equal opportunities in the economy. Often excluded from the "good jobs" in society, women are not able to obtain a fair share of the benefits of economic activity and they are not able to make a full contribution to the economic wellbeing of their society. Special attention to the formal sector is also justified by practical considerations:
  • first, the availability of data
  • second, formal sector activity is (by definition) within the direct realm of government policy

Overall Situation of Women in the Formal Sector

• Relative to their numbers in society and also relative to their overall involvement in economic activity, women are under-represented in formal sector activity. This under representation is particularly noticeable in higher level jobs.

• Estimates made in the report indicate that women accounted for less than 18 per cent of total formal sector employment in 1994. Government accounts for roughly one-third of women's formal sector employment. In manufacturing, women make up only 16 per cent of the labour force. Wage agriculture is also a large employer of women, but because of its absolute size and not because women are hired there at a high rate.

• Women's employment in government is highly concentrated in two departments: education and health. These are predominantly teachers and nurses. The two departments account for more than half the women working in government services. Women in government are poorly represented in the managerial and executive salary level positions - in C-9 up through L8, according to one estimate, women account for only 8 per cent of government employees in these categories.

• The relatively poor position of women in the PNG formal sector appears to have multiple roots. Direct discrimination in hiring and promotion is likely to have played a role, but it is clear that to a large degree, women's economic position is shaped by factors that precede their entry into the job market.

• Differences in the education of boys and girls stand out, particularly the significantly lower retention rate of girls in the schools. Differences in education, in turn, reflect prevailing beliefs, embodied in attitudes about the differences between the appropriate social, political and economic roles for men and women. Also, what happens in the schools has a counterpart in women's roles in training programmes.

• Another factor affecting women's role in the formal sector is their set of obligations outside of employment; as in other societies, PNG women have primary responsibilities for child care and the maintenance of the home. These responsibilities often curtail their ability to participate in or advance within the formal sector.

• The position of women in the formal sector is, furthermore, shaped by the general structure and evolution of the country's economy. In 1990 and 1995, the Government entered into structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) with international lending agencies in order to obtain external financial assistance. Aside from the larger question of their longer run effectiveness, the SAPs have imposed immediate and direct hardships on PNG. Of particular relevance in terms of its impact on women, government policy is leading towards significant reductions in public sector employment, higher fees throughout the educational system, and possible cutbacks in basic social services.

• The Government of PNG has recognized the problems faced by women and has begun to establish mechanisms and take steps towards integrating and supporting women's contribution to development efforts in the country.

Strengthening the Legislative Framework to Redress Gender Inequality

• Gender discriminatory provisions in employment legislation reflect and even reinforce already existing gender inequalities in PNG society. However, the law and the legal process can offer an important means of protection against discriminatory employment practices and guaranteeing fundamental women worker's rights.

• Papua New Guinea has ratified a total of 19 ILO Conventions. Except for the Convention on Underground Work (Women) (No. 45) and the Convention on Employment Policy (No. 122), PNG has not ratified any other Convention relevant to women. The Papua New Guinea Country Report to the Beijing Conference on Women (1995) urges the Department of Industrial Relations to take immediate action to ratify the Conventions on Maternity Protection (Revised) (No. 103), Workers with Family Responsibilities (No. 156), Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (No. 111), Equal Remuneration (No. 100) and on Minimum Age (No. 138).

• In 1994, the PNG Parliament has ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

• Some specific provisions in PNG's employment legislation which adversely affect women's employment relate to wage discrimination, maternity protection, specific employment restrictions for women, especially married women and the lack of adequate measures for workers with family responsibilities. In addition, women face particular problems outside the legal framework covering employment which have nonetheless a considerable influence on their opportunities and treatment in the labour market.

• The viability and the effectiveness of the existing industrial relations system will have an important impact on the extent to which specific women's concerns will be on the collective bargaining agenda. Government, employers' and workers' organisations have become more conscious about the need to undertake more action to involve women employees in collective bargaining and labour negotiations.

Policy Proposals

Part I: Gender and Development

• Changing the position of women in economic life will depend in large part on altering the educational system. However, even if educational reforms is rapidly implemented and fully successful, it will be a decade or more before that reforms begins to have significant impacts on the gender structure of the labour force. Also, the gender inequalities in both the labour force and the educational system reflect social attitudes and practices that are not subject to direct government intervention and are slow to change in any case.

• At the same time, there are policies, some of them relatively simple policies, that can have important impacts in a relatively short period of time.

• The proposals put forward in this report are limited in their scope in that they are restricted to issues that have been analysed, are within the policy framework accepted by the PNG Government, in so far as possible do not benefit women at the expense of men and do not require large amounts of new resources.

• As a first step in establishing a foundation for policies that would improve the position of women in PNG, each new policy initiative and each specific project proposal should be accompanied by a Gender Impact Assessment (GIA). The GIA should be part of the Gender Management System. The principal purpose of integrating the GIA system into the PNG Government processes as proposed in this report would be to raise the awareness and status of gender issues within the Government.

• The PNG Government should review the various training programmes that it operates and influences in order to assure an increased participation of women. In particular:
  • The Government should seek ways to increase the role of within-country training programmes in preparing people for higher level positions, both in the public and private sectors.
  • The Government should consider ways in which the existing training-related tax can be used to enhance women's participation in private sector training programmes.
  • The Government should institute equal opportunity processes in training programmes.

• The PNG Government should continue to pursue and, where possible, strengthen efforts to improve the country's educational system and increase the retention of girls in the schools. In particular:
  • The current review of the National Plan of Action: Education for All, 1994-2010 (DOE, 1994b) should give special attention to the goal of finding ways to more fully incorporate within the Plan efforts to establish equality in the education of males and females.
  • The Government should use the Australian Agency for International Development project (AusAid, 1995b) that is currently in the final stage design, as the foundation for major efforts to establish equality in the education of males and females.
  • The Government should weigh carefully any proposal to raise school fees at all levels as it creates an important bias against the broad social goal of economic development and against the important particular social goal of gender equality.
  • The Government should extend and develop equal opportunity procedures in the educational system, government sponsored training programmes and its own employment and promotion structures. In addition, the Government should undertake an investigation of private sector employment and promotion practices to determine the extent to which equal opportunity legislation affecting the private sector would be useful.

• The Government should undertake a re-examination of central aspects of its overall economic development strategy with the purpose of identifying its connections to gender issues. This is especially important in relation to the country's structural adjustment programme (SAP) which may have significant gender implications as it calls for significant reductions in government employment (the elimination of 4500 positions) and for significant sectoral reallocations of resources within the private sector.

• The suggestion that PNG development strategy should be re-examined in terms of its relations to gender issues is a proposal about how development strategy should be formulated, it is not a proposal as to what the strategy should be. The design of development strategy depends upon many considerations, and issues of gender are only one part of a larger foundation on which strategic decisions are based. The suggestions offered in this report can assist the Government in recognising the complex relationships between its overall development strategy and gender. It would also be possible to adjust or reformulate the policy to make it more effective, more workable and more clearly in the interests of all the country's people.

Part II: Measures to enhance social protection and quality of employment

• The Department of Industrial Relations should follow-up on the recommendation made in the PNG Country Report to the Beijing Conference on Women to ratify the ILO Conventions which directly affect women in employment and related conditions and to ensure that national legislation is in compliance with these ILO standards.

• The employment legislation should be reviewed in light of CEDAW and the basic ILO Conventions relevant to women. The ratification of CEDAW provides the basis for future legislative changes. Given the existing commitment of the Department of Industrial Relations to review legislation in accordance with CEDAW, consideration should be given to adopt an explicit prohibition against direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex, pregnancy, marital status, child birth and family responsibilities in respect of hiring, terms and conditions of work, training and education, promotion and termination.

• A clear focus should be placed on the critical review of standards that set special protective measures for women workers. Discussions on protective measures should strike a balance between the genuine interests of the employer on the one hand and the worker on the other, and not be guided solely by economic forces. Any review of PNG's employment legislation should be considered against the background of a growing consensus that women should be protected on the same basis and with the same standards of protection as men. This should not however prevent legislation that protects women from conditions that are harmful to their reproductive capacity, provided that this can be justified by objective and up-to-date scientific evidence.

• It is desirable that the section in the Employment Act on maternity protection be amended in accordance with the ILO Conventions on Maternity Protection (Revised) (No.103) and on Termination of Employment (No.158). However, the costs of maternity protection should be borne by public funds or a system of compulsory insurance, rather than directly by the employer. Any provision obliging employers to be solely responsible for paying maternity benefits will adversely affect women's employment. Appropriate cost-sharing arrangements need to be worked out among the Government, the employers and the workers. Coverage of maternity benefits under the National Provident Fund needs to be examined. At the same time, efforts should be made to look at other options for developing a more comprehensive insurance scheme in PNG which includes coverage of maternity benefits.

• A policy should be developed to enable workers with family responsibilities to engage in employment without facing discrimination. This should preferably include possibilities for part-time work, flexible working hours and the provision of affordable child care facilities.

• The enforcement of the existing legislative provisions needs to be strengthened. There is a further need for capacity building and increasing financial and human resources of the labour inspectorate. Gender training of labour inspectors and encouraging women to become labour inspectors should be integrated in this approach.

• Legal literacy training on basic women workers' rights and awareness raising about occupational safety and health issues needs to be promoted and developed. The latter might be in the form of a programme improving conditions of work through training of labour inspectors and women workers. Women also need to know how to insist on their rights, deal with sexual harassment and ensure that they are not discriminated against over promotion.

• Employers' and workers' organisations should be sensitized to address gender issues and encourage women to participate in their activities. Consultation should be started about the possibilities of developing a policy and drafting legislation to fight sexual harassment.

• Gender training and training on women workers' rights should be organized for:
  • relevant government officials
  • employers' and workers' organisations
  • labour court officials and lawyers
  • members of the Ombudsmen Commission
  • the Labour Inspectorate
  • the Law Reform Commission

• Effective monitoring of women's employment and formulating policies and recommendations for reform largely depends on the specific data available. These data are generally lacking. Hence, building the capacity for systematic labour data gathering disaggregated by sex is highly recommended.

• As an important first step the Government may consider launching a pilot affirmative action programme which would enable it to make an in-depth analysis of the ways that employment practices and practices in education and training either directly or indirectly discriminate against women, and permit the development of legal and other measures to eliminate such practices. The programme should be managed by the Department of Industrial Relations in coordination with the Women's Division and involve worker's and employers' organisations and relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) concerned with women and gender issues. It is worthwhile looking at the recent initiative of the Office of Civil Aviation to develop an Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and use it as a model for future programmes on affirmative action.

• The equal opportunity/affirmative action programme should be closely related to the development of general EEO policies. As a first but crucial step, the Department of Industrial Relations should make a clear statement on how it intends to implement the commitments made at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995.