Are Female Workers in the Informal Sector Benefiting from the Expanded Maternity Leave Law? : A Preliminary Investigation

Duke Thomas G. Dolorical
Consultant
Social Watch Philippines

Roja E. Salvador
Supervising Health Program Officer
Department of Health

The Philippines’ Expanded Maternity Leave Law (EMLL), enacted in March 2019, expanded the maternity leave to a minimum of 105 days (from 60 days). It sought to provide female workers with significantly more time to regain their health and ensure that their babies are better taken care of. Seeking to help assess the implementation of the EMLL, the study interviewed key informants, using snowball sampling to identify a total of 37 women from all over the country, who got pregnant and/or gave birth between June 2019 and May 2022. Most work in the informal economy or have informal status even in formal settings, serving as food and clothing vendors, domestic helpers, and agricultural workers. Also interviewed were employees of government agencies that help implement the law. The study revealed that awareness of the EMLL and access to its benefits are uneven and limited, with variations depending on which setting the workers are in, whether formal or informal. This is due to the following: the lack of effective information dissemination campaigns from the government; the difficulties of the online application process; the need of workers to prioritize their family’s daily subsistence (instead of paying for SSS premiums), lack of documentary requirements to get a Social Security System (SSS) membership, language barriers, and, in some cases, non-compliance of employers to provide for EMLL benefits. Several policy recommendations are presented to address these and other related challenges.

Maternity leave, employment, SSS, maternity benefit, informal sector, Expanded Maternity Leave Law