The Workplace Dilemma PDF

STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
The
Workplace
Dillemma
of a Pakistani working woman
STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
The
Workplace
Dillemma
Presentation by Aimen Khan
MATERNITY LEAVE
At Government Sector Jobs
At Private Sector Jobs
PRESENTATION For the Prime Minister of
OUTLINE Pakistan
At Progressive Workplaces
A PAKISTANI At Smaller Companies
WOMAN’S PENALTIES
WORKPLACE DAY CARE
DILEMMA At Multinatinal
Organizations
The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN
AUTHORS
GET TO KNOW THEM
ATIKA REHMAN FAHAD NAVEED MUNNAZZAH RAZA

Managing Editor at Dawn Sr Producer Writer at Culture,
Media Group at Dawndotcom Dawndotcom

A PAKISTANI WOMAN’S
WORKPLACE DILEMMA
THE PROBLEM
Many working Pakistani
women feel discriminated
against despite the
increased participation of
women in the workforce.

STATISTICS
14.66 million women

are part of the
civilian labor force,
as opposed to 46.38
million men
TOTAL CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE: 61.04 MILLION
A PAKISTANI
WOMAN’S 80
WORKPLACE
DILEMMA
60
STATISTICS 40
women comprise of 24.01%

20
of civilian labor force
men comprise of 75.98% of

0
men women
civilian labor force

A PAKISTANI
WOMAN’S 75
WORKPLACE
DILEMMA 50
STATISTICS
72.5% of women from Punjab are in the
25
14.5% of women from Sindh are in the

0
8.8% of women from KP are in the Punjab Sindh KP Balochistan
4.2 % of women from Balochistan are in

the civilian labor force
WORKPLACE DILEMMA
MATERNITY LEAVE
AT PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS
PREGNANT OT NOT PREGNANT?
FIRED OR NOT FIRED?
MATERNITY LEAVE
A PAKISTANI Karachi-based civil litigant Naz* is on
the way to starting a family. But the
WOMAN’S dread of sharing this news with
WORKPLACE colleagues at her respective law firm is
DILEMMA giving the pregnant 30-year-old
sleepless nights.
CASE STUDY
“I haven’t told them that I am pregnant
YOU CAN'T GET A because I’m anxious my [expected
RAISE IF YOU ARE salary] raise won’t come through if my
boss finds out,” she says, requesting

PREGNANT
anonymity out of concern for her job.

A PAKISTANI “I also worry that my pregnancy
announcement will influence the kind
WOMAN’S of work assigned to me... that I will be
WORKPLACE given ‘less important’ cases,” she adds.
DILEMMA Although she is confident that her
education at top UK law schools

CASE STUDY
coupled with seven years of
YOU CAN'T GET A experience make her a good candidate
RAISE IF YOU ARE for a raise, the young lawyer’s fears
PREGNANT about being side-lined are not
unfounded.

STATISTICS
51% of the female

respondents on Dawn’s online
survey said that they
would not feel
comfortable telling colleagues
or superiors at work if they
were pregnant.
TOTAL SAMPLE: 556 RESPONDENTS
WOMEN: 236
Conversations with dozens of
women for this report turn the
spotlight on a lazy approach in
Pakistan which perpetuates
discrimination against women in
the workplace — especially when it
comes to small and medium sized
organisations.

A PAKISTANI “This culture is not limited to [working mothers],
WOMAN’S it also targets married females,” says one
respondent, Gill, in response to a survey on
WORKPLACE workplace discrimination conducted
DILEMMA by Dawn.com.
“I have been married for two years and have no

CASE STUDY
kids. Yet everywhere I apply, the interviewers are
WHAT IF YOU HAVE like, 'What if you are to have a baby? We cannot
A BABY? afford to keep you on in such a case. You would
only be able to work for like two trimesters'. It is
unfortunate that I cannot have a career just
because I might have a baby [at some point].”

A PAKISTANI Mahum, an employee at a large bank in
Karachi, shares a similar story. “When I was
WOMAN’S getting married I had been with the bank
WORKPLACE for five years and everyone kept asking if I
would keep working — everyone, multiple
DILEMMA times. They just would not believe me no
matter what I said. A man will never be
CASE STUDY asked this question when he is getting
married,” she says, adding that the

WILL YOU WORK questions did not stop for the first year of
AFTER MARRIAGE? her marriage even though she continued
working.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
MATERNITY LEAVE
FOR THE PRIME MINISTER OF
PAKISTAN
A PAKISTANI Undoubtedly, in the pecking order of
discrimination against women at the workplace,
WOMAN’S expectant mothers have it the worst. A
WORKPLACE respondent who identifies herself as AA says
three of her colleagues had to leave their
DILEMMA private sector jobs in the medical field as they
needed at least three months of maternity
CASE STUDY leave and their workplace allowed just one
month of unpaid leave.

YOU WILL ONLY GET
ONE MONTH'S PAID “Since I am expecting now, I have decided to
LEAVE look for another organisation which offers paid
maternity leave for three months,” she adds.

Attitudes in Pakistan have seemingly not shifted
A PAKISTANI much in the last 25 years even as more women
WOMAN’S enter the urban and rural workspace. Back in 1990,
then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto found herself in
WORKPLACE a fix as she contemplated making her second
DILEMMA pregnancy public while she was in office.
In the book Daughter of the East the late former

CASE STUDY
prime minister shared, “Once the political
YOU CAN NOT GET opposition learned I was pregnant, all hell broke
PREGNANT IF YOU loose. They called on the president and the
ARE THE PRIME military to overthrow me. They argued that
Pakistan's government rules did not provide for a

MINISTER OF
pregnant prime minister going on maternity leave.”
PAKISTAN
As the opposition drew up a plan of strikes to
A PAKISTANI “pressure the president into sacking the
WOMAN’S government”, Bhutto had plans of her own. With
the permission of her doctor, she decided to have
WORKPLACE a caesarean delivery "on the eve of the call for
DILEMMA strike action.” Bhutto rejected the opposition’s
demands, highlighting that maternity laws for
CASE STUDY working women exist.
YOU CAN NOT GET Bhutto went on to say, “I didn't want to encourage
PREGNANT IF YOU any stereotypes that pregnancy interferes with
ARE THE PRIME performance. So, despite my condition, I worked
just as hard, and probably a lot harder, than a

MINISTER OF
male prime minister would have done.”
PAKISTAN
Maternity leave
policies exist — if
you’re lucky
MATERNITY A PAKISTANI
LEAVE WOMAN’S
POLICIES WORKPLACE
EXIST — IF DILEMMA
YOU’RE WHAT THE LAW SAYS
LUCKY Although Article 37 (e) of the
Constitution of Pakistan directs the state
to ensure “maternity benefits for women
in employment…” many organisations get
away with violating rules surrounding
maternity leave.

According to The West Pakistan
Maternity Benefit Ordinance,
1958, women working at an
establishment for four months or
above are entitled to 12 weeks
paid maternity leave.
Under Pakistani law, the
company is liable for providing
paid leave for six weeks prior to
and six week after the delivery.

Yet, with limited checks and
balances, implementation remains
sporadic across workplaces in the
country. A basic three month paid
maternity leave is a luxury.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
“[Employers] are not taken into account for
violating the law. The beneficiaries of this
law are women who are some of the most
vulnerable workers, so if their rights are
taken away they are in less of a position to
go and [challenge] somebody stronger and
more powerful,” says Sara, a Karachi-based
lawyer working on reproductive healthcare.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
ARE THE PENALTIES EVEN
REAL?
The outdated penalties for the
contravention of the law are in
desperate need of an upgrade and
reflect the casual approach of the
state towards the law.

A 2010 report by the Law and Justice
Commission of Pakistan noted that
the, “..sums mentioned as fine i.e.
rupees 500 [clause 11] is too
inadequate to deter an offender
from committing a break of the
law.”
WORKPLACE DILEMMA
REAL?
“Most of these laws were drafted in times
when it was hard to imagine women
working in the public sphere,” Dr Javaid
Iqbal Gill, a representative of the Labour
Department, noted at an event in 2014.

The Maternity Benefit
Ordinance also states that it is
unlawful for an employer to
dismiss a woman during her
pregnancy period.
A PAKISTANI
WOMAN’S 15
WORKPLACE
DILEMMA 10
WHAT HAPPENDS IN
REAL 5
5.5% of women were fired after
announcing their pregnancies
13% quit their job after they got 0

fired quit part-time
pregnant
5.5% went part-time after their
pregnancies The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
REAL?
But despite the legislation, many
workplaces do not have a concrete policy
at all and appear to be either violating the
law altogether or making calls on an
individual basis.

A PAKISTANI This is also true for women journalists, who
dedicate their lives to giving voice to the
WOMAN’S rights of others but often find their own
WORKPLACE workplaces unsupportive.
DILEMMA “The media has really failed working
mothers,” says DM, a former staffer at a
CASE STUDY leading English language daily.
WE WON'T HEAR YOU

NO MATTER HOW
LOUD YOU ARE!

A PAKISTANI “I got two months off with half pay. That’s
ridiculous!”
WOMAN’S
WORKPLACE “I tried [to ask management to change] the
policy, but to no avail,” she adds.
DILEMMA
“Basically you have to give up your career
CASE STUDY because they [employers] are not willing to
accommodate working mothers in any

WE WON'T HEAR YOU way.”
NO MATTER HOW
LOUD YOU ARE!

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
WHY THE WOMEN ARE NOT
FIGHTING BACK?
Despite blatant violations of the law, women
don’t take employers to court. “Going to court
can be very time-consuming and expensive; the
procedures for complaint are not set out very
clearly under the law either. So there are a lot
of gaps in terms of the legal protection that
are offered,” lawyer Malkani tells Dawn.com.

STATISTICS
59% of the female

respondents are unsatisfied
with the maternity and
paternity leave policies at
their jobs according to
Dawn's online survey
A PAKISTANI Several mothers also feel that they had to
‘prove their worth’ to employers during a
WOMAN’S pregnancy.
WORKPLACE Shockingly, Amara’s* pregnancy
DILEMMA announcement was met with unsolicited
advice from her boss: "get the baby
CASE STUDY aborted if you have any doubts."
GET THE BABY

ABORTED IF YOU
HAVE ANY DOUBTS

A PAKISTANI In this environment, Amara continued to
work 12 hours a day till the 40th week of
WOMAN’S her pregnancy. At home she was told, ‘You
WORKPLACE just have to sit at work, what’s the big
deal?’ while at work she was asked, ‘What
DILEMMA good will sitting at home do you?’
CASE STUDY
Amara powered through, and is now a
WE WON'T HEAR YOU manager at her firm after two promotions.
NO MATTER HOW She feels her employers were hawkishly
LOUD YOU ARE! observing her throughout her pregnancy, so
she had to go the extra mile to show
commitment to the job.

A PAKISTANI Another woman employed as a project
engineer in Karachi for a steel group recalls
WOMAN’S how harshly she was treated when she
WORKPLACE broke the news of her pregnancy at her
former workplace back in 2013.
DILEMMA
Sara* submitted a maternity leave
CASE STUDY application, confident of a favorable
response as she had been employed there

YOU ARE PREGNANT? for five years. The response? A letter of
YOU ARE FIRED ALSO! termination. “I was the first-ever woman
CONGRATULATIONS! employee to get [pregnant] and apparently
[they had no maternity leave policy].”

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
MATERNITY LEAVE
AT PROGRESSIVE WORKPLACES
A PAKISTANI Although several companies have
internalized lax approaches towards
WOMAN’S maternity policies, a handful of large
WORKPLACE companies operating in Pakistan have
managed to successfully enforce rules that
DILEMMA make it possible for women to thrive
professionally.
CASE STUDY
Two years ago, when Faiza walked in for
WE ARE DIFFERENT! her interview – visibly pregnant – at Telenor
Pakistan, she had considerable doubts on
her prospects of securing the job.

A PAKISTANI “Usually employers discourage bringing on board
a candidate when they discover that she is
WOMAN’S expecting and is therefore set to take a break
WORKPLACE soon,” she tells Dawn.com. But Faiza, who is now
working for HR at Telenor, got the job.
DILEMMA
Telenor, an international company operating in
CASE STUDY markets across Europe and Asia, says its maternity
leave policy has undergone changes over the

WE ARE DIFFERENT! years and since September 2015, the
telecommunications company has a policy which
allows female employees globally to take salaried
leave for six months during the maternity period.

A PAKISTANI Another multinational to have successfully
incorporated a six-month leave policy is Unilever.
WOMAN’S “I worked till the last week of my pregnancy as I
WORKPLACE was given support and enjoyed the work I was
doing. Returning to work post maternity leave was
DILEMMA exciting and I had a seamless transition,” says
employee Sarah.
CASE STUDY
Textile brand Khaadi, too, strives to maintain an
WE ARE DIFFERENT! environment that is conducive to working mothers.
Khaadi provides 12 weeks paid maternity leave to
employees. The company’s head office employs
about 275 staffers, 30% of whom are women.

A PAKISTANI “I had a very difficult pregnancy and was
required to be on bed rest relatively early
WOMAN’S on. I stopped working at Khaadi in January
WORKPLACE 2015 and re-joined in September the same
year,” recalls Sharmin, head of HR at the
DILEMMA design firm.
CASE STUDY For these companies enforcing the policy
means systems are in place to share the

WE ARE DIFFERENT! workload. “I was assured by the CEO that
my position… would not be filled and my
work was taken up by my colleagues.”

A PAKISTANI How the teams manage in the absence of
the employee depends on their position,
WOMAN’S Raza adds. “At entry-level positions, a
WORKPLACE supervisor assumes the responsibility. At
higher levels, it is often divided among
DILEMMA peers,” she says.
CASE STUDY Similarly, many larger NGOs also give three-
months paid leave, “as they are externally

WE ARE DIFFERENT! and internally audited for their gender
policies,” says Saima, a programme
manager with Aurat Foundation.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
MATERNITY LEAVE
AT SMALLER COMPANIES
WORKPLACE DILEMMA
WHAT DO THE EMPLOYERS HAVE
TO SAY IN THEIR DEFENSE?
Obaid, an employee at a plastic
packaging company stresses that having
the “right person for the right job,” is
critical at small or medium-sized
companies.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
“Hiring, especially in sales, requires a
training period…Often times, this is a
process that requires a significant amount
of time and resource invested into each
employee and they become part of a very
tightly fit puzzle,” he says.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
“If after this investment, an employee were
to become unavailable for an extended
period or, in the worst-case scenario, leave,
the company suffers in very real terms due
to that loss of productivity,” he adds.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
“Employers are often hiring with this very
fact in mind and are often apprehensive
of hiring someone that might not be able
to fully commit,” he says adding that, “This
situation exists whether the employee in
question is male or female.”

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
“The unfortunate side effect of biology, as
well as our country's culture, is the fact
that women suffer the most at the hands
of this apprehension."

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
"While women deserve equal treatment in
the work place, the sad reality is that often
times a SME needs to take into account a
woman's marital status as part of the
opportunity cost of hiring her,” he says.

WORKPLACE DILEMMA
MATERNITY LEAVE
AT GOVERNMENT SECTOR JOBS
A PAKISTANI The situation for maternity leave in the
government sector is no different. While it
WOMAN’S is worth noting that the government sector
WORKPLACE has a very small percentage of women in
civil service (almost 10 per cent according
DILEMMA to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-
2016), they follow the state approved
CASE STUDY maternity leave policy.
SO WHAT IF YOU ARE Since government jobs also offer health
A CIVIL SERVANT? benefits, unlike many of their private
counterparts, the employers also foot
hospital bills.

The Civil Servants Rules state
that maternity leave is
admissible to a female civil
servant on “full pay for upto
three months”.
The rules further state that such
leave may not be granted for
more than three times in the
career of a civil servant —
except, curiously, ones working
in “a vacation department”.
A PAKISTANI “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government has a policy of giving
WOMAN’S three month paid leave to women
WORKPLACE employees,” Robina, deputy-
secretary women development,
DILEMMA tells Dawn.com.
CASE STUDY
SO WHAT IF YOU ARE
A CIVIL SERVANT?

A PAKISTANI Masooma*, a lawyer who worked at
Suparco shares a rare pleasant experience
WOMAN’S of a supportive employer. “Suparco had a
WORKPLACE lovely day-care centre for kids. They even
ran a shuttle during tea break and lunch
DILEMMA times from the main building to the centre,
so mothers could visit their kids. There was
CASE STUDY a dad who used to drop off his toddler in
the mornings, since his wife was in med

SO YOU HAVE KIDS? school,” she says.
However, she maintains the situation would
have been starkly different at a law firm.

A PAKISTANI “I can't imagine being able to work in
a law firm while having a kid. I don't
WOMAN’S know many female lawyers who do (if
WORKPLACE any), unless they work in a family firm.
Or they switch to corporate.”
DILEMMA
She is right; most companies do not
CASE STUDY have day-care services for new-borns
and do not allow flexible work hours

SO YOU HAVE KIDS?! for mothers.

A PAKISTANI
WOMAN’S 80
WORKPLACE
DILEMMA
60
HOW IT IS FOR KIDS 40
According to Dawn's survey 66.4%
of respondents find their offices

20
unsupportive of staffers bringing
their children to work. 77.3% said

0
that their offices do not offer day-
s
s
re
re
id
rk
ca
ca
ei
y-
y-
care facilities. 12% of responders
th
da
da
g
ve
in
av
ng
ha
said that their children were at
th
bu
n'
en
do
om
office day-cares during the day. w
of
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tiv
WORKPLACE DILEMMA
DAY CARE
A PAKISTANI Yet larger companies are making room for
more progressive policies.“Upon my return,
WOMAN’S an office was converted into a nursing
WORKPLACE room for me while our new nursery was
under construction and the support I
DILEMMA received to balance life as a new working
mother was par none,” Raza from Khaadi
CASE STUDY tells Dawn.com.
SO YOU HAVE KIDS? “All mothers are allowed to bring their
children to work [irrespective of their
position], in fact, there is a nursery for
children where mothers can leave their
children with their nannies and toys,” she
The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN says.

A PAKISTANI Although there is no age limit on the
children employees bring to the office, she
WOMAN’S points out that any employee bringing in a
WORKPLACE child must have their own nanny to care
for the child.
DILEMMA
Telenor too provides additional support to
CASE STUDY employees once the baby is born.
Additional facilities include work-from-

SO YOU HAVE KIDS? home arrangements and flexible working
hours along with in-house day-care
facilities. These day-cares act as
children’s abodes until they attain school-
going age.

A PAKISTANI Unilever also provides on-site day-care.
The day-care centre allows parents to
WOMAN’S bring their new-borns and young children
WORKPLACE (of up to six years) to work. It comes
equipped with cameras so parents can
DILEMMA monitor their children on laptops through
specialized software accessible only to
CASE STUDY them.
SO YOU HAVE KIDS? In addition to the Karachi head office,
Unilever has also recently started a day-
care at its Rahim Yar Khan factory, open
to the children of both management and
non-management staff.

A PAKISTANI The impact of these facilities extends beyond
just the employee and can leave a lasting
WOMAN’S impact on the entire family unit. Ammad,
WORKPLACE manager consumer and customer
development at Unilever, shares that the
DILEMMA facility has not only helped his son engage in
a healthy development environment, but has
CASE STUDY also helped put his wife – who is not a
Unilever employee – at ease. “The ripple

SO YOU HAVE KIDS? effect of this support goes beyond Unilever.”
“It’s a question of changing workplace culture
and changing mindsets,” says lawyer Malkani.

A PAKISTANI “I think people need to get more
comfortable [with] the idea that women
WOMAN’S are in the workforce, and they are here
WORKPLACE stay. As that becomes more accepted,
employers will have to start finding ways
DILEMMA to accommodate pregnant women, or
women with children in the workplace.”
CASE STUDY
SO YOU HAVE KIDS?

QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK
HAPPY TO HEAR FROM YOU
DATE PUBLISHED
May 14, 2017
PUBLISHED AT
www.dawn.com
SOURCE
https://www.dawn.com/news/1318989

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STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

ATIKA REHMAN FAHAD NAVEED MUNNAZZAH RAZA

Media Group at Dawndotcom Dawndotcom

Many working Pakistani

women feel discriminated

against despite the

women in the workforce.

14.66 million women

women comprise of 24.01%

men comprise of 75.98% of

The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

14.5% of women from Sindh are in the

civilian labor force

civilian labor force

4.2 % of women from Balochistan are in

the way to starting a family. But the

WOMAN’S dread of sharing this news with

WORKPLACE colleagues at her respective law firm is

DILEMMA giving the pregnant 30-year-old

YOU CAN'T GET A because I’m anxious my [expected

RAISE IF YOU ARE salary] raise won’t come through if my

boss finds out,” she says, requesting

The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

announcement will influence the kind

WOMAN’S of work assigned to me... that I will be

WORKPLACE given ‘less important’ cases,” she adds.

DILEMMA Although she is confident that her

education at top UK law schools

YOU CAN'T GET A experience make her a good candidate

RAISE IF YOU ARE for a raise, the young lawyer’s fears

PREGNANT about being side-lined are not

The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

51% of the female

women for this report turn the

spotlight on a lazy approach in

Pakistan which perpetuates

discrimination against women in

the workplace — especially when it

comes to small and medium sized

The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

WOMAN’S it also targets married females,” says one

respondent, Gill, in response to a survey on

WORKPLACE workplace discrimination conducted

“I have been married for two years and have no

A BABY? afford to keep you on in such a case. You would

only be able to work for like two trimesters'. It is

unfortunate that I cannot have a career just

because I might have a baby [at some point].”

The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

Karachi, shares a similar story. “When I was

WOMAN’S getting married I had been with the bank

WORKPLACE for five years and everyone kept asking if I

would keep working — everyone, multiple

DILEMMA times. They just would not believe me no

matter what I said. A man will never be

CASE STUDY asked this question when he is getting

married,” she says, adding that the

AFTER MARRIAGE? her marriage even though she continued

The Workplace Dillemma| STATUS OF WOMEN IN PAKISTAN

discrimination against women at the workplace,

WOMAN’S expectant mothers have it the worst. A

WORKPLACE respondent who identifies herself as AA says

three of her colleagues had to leave their