English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
In relation to Article 7 of the Decree on Women Labourers, the Circular on Female
Labourers states that the following additional expenses incurred by enterprises as a result of
employing a large number of female labourers will be factored into the costs of business
operations: (a) additional expenses on job-retraining for female labourers if their current jobs
are no longer suitable so that they can undertake other jobs according to enterprise
development planning; (b) salaries and allowances for female teachers of nurseries and
kindergartens under enterprise management; (c) expenses on medical check-up in a year
(apart from the prescribed number of medical check-ups) for the examination of occupational,
chronic or gynecological diseases often suffered by female labourers; (d) expenses on
allowances for female labourers after their first or second childbirth; (e) overtime pay for a
mother who does not breastfeed her newborn baby and keeps working for the enterprise; and
(f) other expenses. 479
Although Article 110 of the Labour Code takes note of costs spent by the employer and
tries to ease the burden of such costs, in some of these cases the items that are said to be
extra costs due to high proportion of women are not really costs for women; rather, they are
items that should be invested in to ensure a good working environment for both sexes. Stating
that this is a cost due to hiring women creates a negative image that hiring women has extra
costs. One example is that costs relating to setting up crèches and kindergartens, equipments
for crèches and kindergartens, and salaries to teachers of crèches and kindergartens should
be a cost not only for enterprises with high proportion of women. As men and women are
encouraged to take equal responsibilities in the rearing of their children, enterprises with a low
proportion of women should be encouraged to set up crèches and kindergartens because both
fathers and mother might wish to use them. Hence, these costs should be allowed as a
reduction not only for enterprises with high proportion of women.
A second example is that, in relation to expenses on job-retraining for female labourers
who are to be transferred because their current jobs are no longer suitable, based on the
above recommendations on modifying this protectionist provision, it is better to provide for tax
reduction for costs to build capacity of women and to provide support for them when they are
in jobs, industries or positions that are dominated by men. Likewise, preferential policies can
be provided to enterprises that are putting in place these support and capacity-building
measures, in place of the task of moving women from banned jobs into suitable ones.
A third example is that, as to costs relating to installation of anti-heat (cooling), noisereducing
or dust-absorbing systems, and building of makeshift tents on construction sites,
farms and other open-air work places, these costs must be general costs for the improvement
of general working conditions and not due to hiring extra proportion of women.
A fourth example is that, as to building of women's fixed bathrooms and toilets at
workshops, factories or mobile ones at open-air work places, this is not really a cost due to
hiring high proportion of women. Employers are required to provide separate bathroom and
toilets facilities to both sexes under Article 116 of the Labour Code. A legal document should
specify how many bathrooms and toilet facilities should be provided in proportion to the
number of employees per sex. Hence, enterprises, regardless of the proportion of men or
223
479
Ibid., Paragraph 2.1
Employment (Article 11 of CEDAW)