manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

Notes for the trainer
After filling the clock the differences in activities are most probably as follows:
- household activities: women do most of the household activities
- working hours: women work longer hours than men because they are more involved in
household activities. Although this is mostly unpaid work it takes many working hours!
- leisure time and social interaction: men socialize in their free time with others, women have
less time available and combine this with other activities like looking after the children
There are a number of concepts and rules that should be clear to the workers after this session.
These are: working hours, rest period, overtime, overtime pay and holiday. A brief description of
these concepts and rules is given in the following paragraphs.
Most probably participants will start with giving their normal working day, i.e. the working day
according to the rules. The facilitator should question this situation: is this the case every single
day? Are all their colleagues working the same hours or do they work more hours? Eventually the
participants will come up with stories about overtime.
Problems that most probably will come up in the discussion about overtime are:
- If you protest you will be skipped from the list of working overtime
- Workers want to work overtime because most of them need the money
- They will transfer you to another department if you complain
- The employer will just fire you and get other workers
- Workers are required to work overtime, but are not paid accordingly
- The excuse of the employer will be that all overtime work is done on a voluntary base
It is difficult to find a solution to these situations. Make clear that if they want to take action they
should do it in an organized way, with a trade union for instance. Solidarity is a very important thing
if people want to advocate and fight for their rights.
Another issue that you can mention in the discussion is that long working hours are unhealthy for
the worker and that it will result in lower production for the employer. This is a strong argument
they can use if they talk with the employer about the problem of overtime.
Important: Explain the participants also what they should do in case something happens with a
worker due to working a lot of overtime. When this exercise was tested with factory workers some
stories came up about terrible accidents with workers who were very tired because they worked
many hours overtime. When an accident happens and you go to see a doctor, take a colleague
with you and make sure that the doctor clearly states in his or her report that the accident
happened because you were too tired due to working too many hours. This will help you to get
compensation. This is also valid if something happens during a break at work and even after
working hours because the main reason is being tired due to working too many hours.
Complaints can be made to MOSALVY with support from the Trade Union or go to an NGO and
ask if they can help you to prepare the case.
Tip:
Invite a resource person to the session who is familiar with the laws in detail.
Working hours
This is clearly mentioned in article 137 of the Labour Code 1997: the number of hours worked by
workers of either sex can not exceed eight (8) hours per day, or forty-eight (48) hours per week.
Make clear that when people are working in shifts, a shift should not take longer than 8 hours and
that the total working time in one week should not exceed 48 hours. All hours that are worked more
in shifts should be paid as overtime.
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