International Companies Violate Rights of Pregnant Workers in Mexico

by Thalif Deen

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says these companies, located mostly along the U.S.-Mexico border, oblige women to undergo pregnancy testing as a condition of their employment. Women thought to be pregnant are not hired.

"This is flagrant sex discrimination that these corporations would never dare to defend or practice in their own countries," said Regan Ralph, executive director of HRW.

The U.S. companies identified by Human Rights Watch include Lear, Johnson Controls, National Processing Company and Tyco International, while international corporations include the Samsung Group of South Korea, Matsushita Electric Corporation and Sanyo of Japan and Germany's Siemens AG.

In its 82-page report released last week, HRW also criticizes the Mexican government's failure to enforce its own labor laws in the export processing (maquiladora) sector.

"When corporations say that this discrimination is permissible under Mexican labor law, they are in fact hiding behind Mexico's own negligence," said Ralph.

The study describes the cases of 53 women, among others, who faced either hiring-process pregnancy discrimination or on-the-job pregnancy discrimination in 50 factories.

The Mexican government, the report says, claims that pregnancy testing does not violate its law and fails to recognize the extent of on-the-job pregnancy discrimination.

"The Mexican government has fallen back on weak legalisms to defend the practice of pregnancy testing," the report says.

The U.S. government, meanwhile, is holding consultations on this issue under the labor rights side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

According to the report, Mexico has argued that the existing prohibitions against sex discrimination do not cover pregnancy testing -- an assertion that many Mexican lawyers strenuously reject.

The Mexican government has also argued that the provisions against sex discrimination apply only to actual employees, not to job applicants.

"The Mexican government's defense is weak and phony, it is reinterpreting Mexican law to suit its case," said Ralph.

The HRW report illustrates how pregnancy discrimination follows women throughout their employment. For example, some maquiladoras require women to take pregnancy exams even after they have been hired as a condition of continued work.

Some maquiladoras, like the Germany-based Siemens and U.S.-based Lear Corporation and National Processing Company, go so far as to require women workers to report to factory infirmaries to display their used sanitary napkins as incontrovertible proof that they are not pregnant.

"The Mexican government has abandoned women workers to the discriminatory employment practices of maquiladora operators," Ralph said. "Women are left having to choose between a job and their rights, and the Mexican government is on the wrong side of that choice."

Human Rights Watch says that it released a similar report in August 1996 detailing the labor force sex discrimination in Mexico. But two years later, the Mexican government "is yet to take any meaningful action to condemn, investigate, or punish this blatant sex discrimination."

"Pregnancy as a condition is inextricably linked and specific to being female," says the report. "Consequently, when women are treated in an adverse manner by their employers or potential employers because they are pregnant or because they may become pregnant, they are being subjected to a form of sex discrimination by targeting a condition only women experience."

HRW urges the government of Mexico to uphold international human rights obligations to guarantee the right to non-discrimination, the right to privacy, and the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of children without discrimination.

It also asks the Mexican government to acknowledge and publicly condemn pregnancy discrimination and enact clarifying federal legislation that explicitly prohibits any company from requiring that women give proof of pregnancy status, contraceptive use, or any other information related to reproductive choice and health in order to be considered for employment.

The rights organization wants the Mexican government to vigorously investigate all complaints of sex-based discrimination and establish and enforce penalties to punish companies engaged in pregnancy-based hiring practices.