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“Direct attack”. Women’s movement condemns labor changes

The Democratic Women’s Movement (MDM) today condemned the government’s proposed labor law changes, describing them as a “direct attack on the rights” of female workers, which complicates the balance between work and family life and increases job insecurity and discrimination.

The MDM reviewed the proposed amendments to the Labor Code and highlighted several concerning aspects, which it sees as a “regression,” including the controversial issue around the reduction of breastfeeding hours, ignoring recommendations from international organizations such as the World Health Organization.

The government aims to cap breastfeeding leave until the child is two years old (currently, there is no limit) and require medical certificates every six months, while presently, a medical certificate is necessary only when the leave extends beyond the child’s first year.

According to the MDM, the Labor Minister’s comments, suggesting that breastfeeding rights might be misused to avoid work, demonstrate a “hostile, distrusting, and discriminatory view of women’s choices,” potentially fostering suspicion over those who breastfeed, the movement accused.

The MDM criticizes the proposal but emphasizes that it is not the only issue in the package of measures.

The movement also warns of “the blow to the right to flexible hours,” as the government intends to end the possibility of refusing night or weekend work for parents with children under 12.

Other “severe regressions” include changes to protections in cases of pregnancy loss, with the proposal eliminating three days of justified and paid leave for both the woman and the father.

The movement views this change as “destroying the social function of maternity and paternity.”

Extending the duration for which a worker can remain on temporary contracts is another “glaring regression” noted by the MDM, criticizing the government’s proposal to allow nine years of contractual employment, leaving these workers “with suspended lives, without stability, without predictability.”

“These changes reveal precariousness as a state policy, institutionalized to last nearly a decade in women’s lives,” the movement highlights, noting that telework also did not escape scrutiny, with the government wanting to remove the possibility for workers to refuse teleworking.

The MDM also criticizes the notion of preventing the ACT from intervening during illegal dismissal processes, seeing it as resulting in “less oversight, less scrutiny” and “more impunity for companies seeking to get rid of those who bother them.”

Moreover, they warn that if the ACT only acts after the process is concluded, by then, often “the worker has already lost wages, stability, and their job.”

The movement recalls the increase in cases of pregnant women and new mothers being dismissed, reaching 1,886 cases last year, the highest number since 2020.

For these reasons, the movement considers the proposed changes “a civilizational setback disguised as modernization, reinforcing inequalities, feeding control over women’s choices, and pushing the reconciliation of professional and family life into the realm of the impossible.”

The movement rejects the amendments, accusing the government’s proposal of “not being neutral,” viewing it as “a deliberate political choice that places companies’ interests above people’s rights. It is opted for profit at the expense of social justice. A clear message is sent to women: your rights are negotiable. To families, it says: figure it out yourselves.”

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