[Talk] Pregnancy a 'privilege' in the workplace?
Pregnancy a 'privilege' in the workplace?
I browse one of Taiwan's largest BBS sites (PTT) regularly, and also help
others with their English questions/issues.
Recently I was browsing the "Salary" board on this site - where Taiwanese
workers discuss job conditions and other work-related issues - and saw a
lively discussion about two women who had to suffer through workplace
hostility because they had the temerity to get themselves pregnant soon after
beginning a new job in Taiwanese firms (before anyone asks, yes, both were
and are happily married, and why should that be a concern anyway?).
The issue was not that discrimination exists - I'm not so naive as to pretend
Discrimination (with a capital D) is a thing of the past - but rather, that
1) in this case it was discrimination against pregnancy status?
This is so screwed up I can't even think of a less awkward phrase than
"pregnancy status." I mean "race", "color", "sexual orientation" etc. are all
common phrases with well-defined meanings, but "pregnancy status"?
2) the people doing the discriminating were not Capital, but Labor. Or in
other words, these women's peers.
One woman's HR manager was openly hostile to her getting pregnant and
repeatedly tried to force her to voluntarily resign or take unpaid leaves of
absences, which could then be converted to a resignation. Her co-workers
(male and female) objected to the fact that she could not lift heavy loads
not put in the same amount of overtime as others, and once even went over the
head of the woman's department manager to complain about it. When the first
woman eventually delivered prematurely @ 37 weeks (perhaps due to adverse
workplace pressure?) the HR manager commented, "See, I knew she got pregnant
before she started working for us, and she's here just for our benefits."
After the birth the woman decided to breastfeed her baby, so twice a day had
to use the ladies' room to work the breast pump (this is actually written
into Taiwanese Labor Law: guaranteed breast pump time, twice a day, 30
minutes each) since her office did not have a breastfeeding room; her HR
manager threatened to post her to China because she was "in the bathroom all
the time."
The second woman also had a terrible experience despite having a female
manager. She was asked to put in severe overtime at one stage despite her
pregnancy (going home around 11pm-12am or so; although the overtime was on a
par with other members of the department), and her manager continuously
berated her for taking pregnancy-related medical absences ("I only took a
half-day for a checkup when I was pregnant, why do you need a day?"). Even if
the issue was only that her husband came to pick her up because she was going
home late, her manager would ask that she be "more independant and less
reliant on others in commuting."
3) Even on a decidedly pro-labor site, there are people justifying the
treatment the two poor women received.
The BBS site "Salary" is almost exclusively filled with employees (or at most
mid-level managers), and dedicated to labor issues. While comments under the
two threads were almost totally in support of the two women, THERE ARE PEOPLE
who argued that the two womens' contribution to their companies were too
small for them to enjoy the privilege of pregnancy. Well, not in so few
words; they argued that they haven't made enough of a contribution to their
company to justify the benefits they enjoy, and having other employees cover
their duties, etc.
I never knew pregnancy was a privilege rather than a right.
I never knew so many of my countrymen stand ready to support a woman's right
to be pregnant at the workplace.
I never knew that there are working people who believe that a woman needs to
"pay her dues" in a figurative sense before she can be allowed the
'privilege' of pregnancy.
--
'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet, You're a slave to money then you die
-Bittersweet Symphony, The Verve
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 70.166.3.190
EngTalk 近期熱門文章
PTT職涯區 即時熱門文章
19
61