REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6237 - AN ACT
FURTHER AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE, AS
AMENDED BY REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED ELEVEN HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE (RE: WOMAN
AND CHILD LABOR LAW)
Section 1.
Section one of Republic Act Numbered Six hundred seventy-nine is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Section 1. Employment of children below twelve years of
age. — No child below twelve years of age shall be employed or
permitted or suffered to work with or without compensation in any shop,
factory, commercial, industrial, or agricultural establishment, in any
kind of work, including domestic service and street trades; provided,
however, that this paragraph shall not apply to work performed outside
school hours in the home or farm enterprise of the child's parent or
guardian.
"(a) Children between twelve and fifteen years of age
may only be employed to perform light work —
1. Which is not harmful to their health or normal
development; and
2. Which is not such as to prejudice their attendance
in school or to benefit from instructions there given.
"(b) No child between twelve and fifteen years of age
shall be employed or permitted or suffered to work with or without
compensation on school days in any shop, factory, commercial,
industrial or agricultural establishment or any place of labor unless
such child knows how to read and write.
"(c) This section shall not apply to work done in
vocational, technical, or professional schools, which is essentially of
an educative character and is not intended for commercial profit,
provided such schools are duly authorized under the law.
"For the purpose of this section, the Secretary of Labor or his duly
authorized representative shall specify what forms of employment may be
considered light."
Sec. 2. Section two of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 2. Employment of Children below sixteen years
of age. —
(a) No child under sixteen years of age shall be
employed or permitted or suffered to work —
"(1) in any industrial undertaking or in any branch
or division thereof, including —
(aa) mines, quarries and other works for the
extraction of minerals from the earth;
(bb) undertakings in which articles are manufactured,
transformed, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted
for sale, or broken up or demolished;
(cc) undertakings engaged in shipbuilding, or in the
generation, transformation or transmission of electricity or motive
power of any kind;
(dd) undertakings engaged in building and civil
engineering works, including constructional repair, maintenance,
alteration and demolition work; and
(ee) undertakings engaged in the transport of
passengers or goods by road or sail or by inland waterways, or in the
handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, warehouses, or airports.
"(2) in any shop, factory, industrial establishment
or other place of labor —
(aa) as operator of elevators, motorman, or fireman;
(bb) to operate or assist in operating or to clean
machinery;
(cc) to work underground or with the use of ramps or
scaffoldings; or
(dd) to do any work similar to any of the foregoing.
"(3) in billiard rooms, cockpits, other place where
games are played with stakes of money or things worth money, or in a
bar, night club, dance hall, stadium or race track, in any kind of
work."
Sec. 3. Section five of the same Act is hereby
amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 5. Hours of work of children; night work. —
(a) No child below sixteen years of age shall be
employed or permitted to work in any shop, factory, commercial or
industrial establishment or other place of labor —
(1) for more than seven hours a day or forty-two
hours weekly; and
(2) between six o'clock in the afternoon and seven
o'clock in the morning of the following day.
(b) No child who has attained the age of sixteen
years but is below the age of eighteen years shall be employed or
permitted or suffered to work in any shop, factory, commercial or
industrial establishment or other place of work between six o'clock in
the afternoon and seven o'clock in the morning of the following day.
"No exception for young persons of either sex to the prohibition of
night work shall be allowed except under circumstances and subject to
the conditions specified in the International Labor Convention No. 90
on Night Work of Young Persons (Industry) Revised (1948) (Ratified:
1953)."
Sec. 4. Section seven of the same Act, as amended,
is further amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 7. Employment of women. —
(a) No women, regardless of age, shall be employed in
any shop, factory, commercial or industrial establishment or other
place of labor to perform work which requires the employee to work
always standing or which involves the lifting of heavy objects.
(b) No woman, regardless of age, shall be employed or
permitted or suffered to work, with or without compensation, in any
industrial undertaking or branch thereof between ten o'clock at night
and ten o'clock in the morning of the following day, except those who
are immediate members of the family operating or owning the same. An
employer may be exempted from the requirement of this subsection —
"(1) in case of force majeure causing an
interruption in the work which was not foreseen and which is not of a
recurring character;
(2) by the Secretary of Labor, if he finds, after
proper investigation, that the work has to do with raw material or
materials in the course of treatment which are subject to rapid
deterioration and night work is necessary to preserve such materials
from loss; and
(3) by the President of the Philippines, with or
without the recommendation of the Secretary of Labor, after
consultation with employers and workers' organizations concerned in
case of serious emergency where national interest demand the suspension
of the night work prohibition for women in particular industry or
industries. Such suspension shall be notified by the government to the
Director General of the International Labor Office in its Annual Report
on the Application of the Night Work Convention.
"(c) No woman, regardless of age, shall be employed
or permitted or suffered to work, with or without compensation, in any
commercial or non-industrial undertaking or branch thereof, other than
agricultural, between twelve o'clock midnight and seven o'clock in the
morning of the following day, except those who are immediate members of
the family owning or operating the same.
"(d) No woman, regardless of age shall be employed or
permitted or suffered to work in any agricultural undertaking at night
without giving her a period of rest of not less than nine consecutive
hours.
The prohibition against night work for women provided for in
subsections (b), (c) and (d) hereof shall not apply to —
(1) women holding responsible positions of a
managerial or technical character; and
(2) women employed in health and welfare services.
"(e) In any shop, factory, commercial, industrial,
non-industrial or agricultural establishment or other place of labor
where men and women are employed, the employer shall not discriminate
against any woman in respect to terms and conditions of employment on
account of her sex, and shall pay equal remuneration for work of equal
value for both men and women employees.
"(f) No woman, eighteen years or over, shall be
allowed or permitted or suffered to work in any shop, factory,
commercial or industrial establishment or in any place of labor without
granting her a rest period of eleven consecutive hours of work between
two working periods."
Sec. 5. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: June 19, 1971
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