The case of the Mactan Export Processing Zone

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Gender and Export Manufacturing in the Philippines: Continuity or change in female employment? The case of the Mactan Export Processing Zone SYLVIA CHANT Published online: 14 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: SYLVIA CHANT (1995) Gender and Export Manufacturing in the Philippines: Continuity or change in female employment? The case of the Mactan Export Processing Zone, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 2:2, 147-176, DOI: 10.1080/09663699550021991 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663699550021991

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G ender, P lace and C ulture , V ol. 2 , N o. 2 , 1 9 9 5

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G ender and E x port M anufacturing in the P hilippines: continuity or change in fem ale em ploy m ent? T he case of the M actan E xport P rocessing Z one

SYLV IA CHA NT & CATHY M CILW A INE , L ondon S chool of E conom ics, U K

T his paper explores the b ases of gendered recruitm ent and occupational segm entation in the M actan E xport P rocessing Z one (M E P Z ), the P hilip pines . I t exam ines the extent to w hich p atterns of dem and for speci® c typ es of fem ale lab our (in term s of age, m arital status, educa tion and so on) m irror those in E P Z s in other parts of the develop ing w orld. T w o im portant (and interrelated) variations in M actan are the desire am ongst em ploy ers to foster long- term loy alty am ong their w orkers, and the acce ptanc e of m arried w om en w ith children in rank- and- ® le p ositions (if not in initial recruitm ent, at least onc e w orkers are in post). W hile not unk no w n in other co untries, the relative distinctiveness of these p atterns und erlines the need to exp lore the diversity in export m anufa cturing op erations in term s of the geographical origins of parent com panies, the proxim ity of offshore sites to transna tional co rporation (T N C ) headq ua rters, the type of item s m anufactured and the nature of production p rocesses (including degrees of m echanisation and w hether goods are sub ject to p artial or com plete assem b ly ), relative w age levels in developing countries, and the sp eci® city of gender roles and relations in different localities. R ecognising that gender ineq ualities und erpin fem ale recruitm ent in exp ort factories in M actan, the article also explores how involvem ent in this w ork reaf® rm s and/ or m odi® es disadvantage in the context of w om en’ s persona l, hom e and w orking lives. ABSTRACT

Intro du ctio n

M ultinational m anufacturing ® rm s in export processing zones (EPZs) in the Philippines, the rest of South-east Asia and other parts of the developing world have been widely noted for their disproportionate share of wom en w orkers. Although the numbers of men em ployed in newer and m ore sophisticated types of export processing production such as autoparts and com puters are on the increase in higher-incom e econom ies such as M exico and Singapore (see for exam ple, D icken, 1990, p. 206; R oberts, 1991, p. 131; Barry, 1992, p. 144; Pearson, 1993), women are usually between 70% and 90% of the labour force in `world market factories’ (Heyzer, 1986, p. 96; Moore, 1988, pp. 100± 1; Sklair, 1991, p. 96; Brydon & Chant, 1993, p. 172). Underpinning feminised labour recruitm ent has been a whole series of gender-stereotyped assum ptions about w om en, including their greater readiness to accept low wages 0966-36 9X /95/020147- 30

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S . C hant & C . M cI lw aine

than men; their m anual dexterity (appropriate to the labour-intensive assembly of parts); their capacity for tedious, repetitive, low-skilled tasks; their docility and m alleability (conducive to the taking of orders from supervisors and to unwillingness to engage in labour disputes); and their high levels of voluntary turnover (due to the gender-speci® c dem ands imposed by marriage and childbirth) (see Froebel et al ., 1980; Elson & Pearson, 1981; Safa, 1981; FernaÂ ndez-K elly, 1983a , 1983b; Fuentes & Ehren reich, 1983; Lim, 1983; Sassen-K oob, 1984; Ong, 1987; Standing, 1989; Hossfeld, 1991). T his last point interrelates w ith another com mon dim ension of selectivity, nam ely that female workers are predominantly young and single: young, single w orkers are assum ed to have fewer family responsibilities than their older counterparts (Yun, 1988, p. 97; Eviota, 1992, p. 120), which in turn means that they are less prone to distractions and absenteeism, and m ore prepared to work overtim e. As youthful workers they are also not only likely to be m ore productive, but as fresh or recent school leavers to be m ore disposed to accepting factory discipline and, as inexperienced in the job market, to be less familiar with industrial labour practices (Ong, 1987, p. 153; Pineda-O freneo, 1988, p. 160; Eviota, 1992, p. 120). Besides this, recruiting a young single workforc e is seen to be advantageous by employers who w ish to escape the burden of maternity payments (Institute of Labour and Manpow er Studies {ILM S}, 1984, p. 12; Safa, 1990, p. 77). W hile this package of assumptions is highly relevant to fem ale recruitm ent, it does not apply everywhere, at least in its entirety, echoing the argum ent of authors such as R uth Pearson (1986) and Leslie Sklair (1991, pp. 93± 101) that it is extremely dif® cult to generalise about em ploym ent practices in EPZs within individual countries, let alone from one part of the world to another. Not on ly are there likely to be variations in the conditions w hich different national and regional governm ents im pose on multinational em ployers (in respect of minimum wage legislation, for exam ple), but also in labour requirements am ong ® rm s on the grounds of product, geographical origins of the parent com pany and so on, as well as in local aspects of gender roles and relations. As R uth Pearson asserts: the characteristics of any given labour force in any location or production process are variable. This results from the speci® city of the production situation and the political, econom ic and gender relations w hich underlie it. M oreover, in terms of recruitment, organisation and control of the workforce in production , different mechanism s are utilised to release fem ale labour power in a form appropriate to the production proce ss being carried out. (1986, p. 68, Pearson ’s em phasis) In exploring the bases of gender-differentiated recruitm ent and occupational segmentation in export manufacturing ® rms in the M actan EPZ of the Philippine V isayas {1,2}, it is hoped to shed light on the extent to which patterns of female employment m irror or deviate from those found in other places, and thereby to explore furth er the associations of labour force characteristics w ith speci® c types of production system in speci® c localities (see Pearson, 1986, p. 71). To w hat extent does the nature of fem ale labour dem and in Mactan corre spond with that in other E PZs? Are women m ost often found on the low er rungs of factory hierarchies? To what degree is this re¯ ected in lower levels of earnings? H ow do pattern s vary among different types of ® rm , and w hat can the ® ndings tell us about the role of gender within current Philippine developm ent strategies? Beyond this, the study is also concerned to explore the implications of female employm ent in export processing plants for women’ s status in Philippine society. If recruitment and occupational segmentation are largely predicated on gender inequalities, is women’s


G ender and E xport M anufacturing in the P hilip pines

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involvement in export manufacturing likely to lead to an entrenchment of these inequalities, or do certain aspects of fem ale participation in this kind of work embody seeds of change? W ith these questions in m ind, the paper is divided into the follow ing sections. The ® rst provides an overview of export processing manufacture in the Philippines, with particular reference to the history and development of the countries EPZs, including Mactan. The paper then goes on to outline the nature of ® rm s in M actan, paying special attention to differences in m anufacturing processes and labour arrangements am on g ® rms within the zone and elsewhere. Follow ing this, we explore the nature of female recruitment, occupational differences between m ale and fem ale em ployees, levels of pay and bene® ts, and, ® nally, the implications for women of export proce ssing em ploym ent. The paper concludes with a review of w hat these ® ndings suggest for general debates on the `feminisation of labour’ in export processing in the developing world, and where future research efforts might be directed. E xp ort M a nufacturing in the Ph ilip p in es: an o verview

Export manufacturing has been one of the main arms of Philippine development policy since the late 1960s, when, under the regime of Ferdinand M arcos, concerted attempts were made to orient the econom y away from the export of prim ary products towards `non-tra ditional’ exports such as garm ents and electronics, and to stimulate foreign investm ent in manufacturing production (Catholic Institute for International R elations {CIIR}, 1987, pp. 33± 34; IBON, 1991, p. 4; Eviota, 1992, p. 80). Initial groundwork for this strategy was laid by R epublic A ct No. 5490 of 1969 which provided for the creation of the Export Proce ssing Zone Authority (EPZA ) (Shoesmith, 1986, p. 42). In 1972, the year in which Marcos imposed m artial law, the ® rst EPZ was established at M ariveles, Bataan (see Fig. 1), and Presidential D ecree No. 66 set out the aim s of EPZA as the `developm ent, establishm ent and maintenance of an effective and ef® cient managem ent of export proce ssing operations in the designated zone (EPZs) and in industrial estates (IEs) in strategic areas of the Philippines for local and foreign investors to pursue and prom ote international com merce’ (EPZA, 1991, p. 1; see also IBON, 1990). W hile regulations on foreign ownership and export-orie nted activities have been progressively relaxed for com panies outside these special zones in the 1980s and 1990s (see Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 2), ® rms within the EPZs have traditionally enjoyed entitlement to 100% foreign ownership, w aiver of minim um registered investm ent, no duties, taxes or licence fees, priority in foreign exchange allocations, speedy administrative procedures, the right to borrow money within the Philippines with government guarantees, and unrestricted repatriation of pro® ts (CIIR, 1987, p. 34; Shoesmith, 1986, p. 43; see also D icken, 1990, p. 214). The desire to follow òutward-looking’ development patterns, of which export-orie nted industrialisation is a prim ary ¯ agship, has to a large extent been the result of pressure from the W orld Bank and other major international developm ent agencies, and, as pointed out by Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo (1988, p. 158), is by no m eans unique to the Philippines (see also CIIR, 1987, p. xii; Standing, 1989, p. 1079). The internationalisation of production by multinational corporations based in the USA , W estern Europe and Japan, has been going on for at least 20± 25 years, having started with industries utilising a high degree of labour such as textiles and clothin g, and extending later to pharm aceuticals and electronics where the costs of full autom ation in the advanced econom ies have been outweighed by the prim ary source of advantage in developing countries: cheap


150


F IG . 1. Philippines: location of export processing zones.

labour (Safa, 1981; Stichter, 1990, pp. 14± 17). Spurred on by improvem ents in transport and com munications and the fragmentation of production processes, several corporations have relocated the m ost labour-intensive parts of their operations to Third W orld settings where the costs of employing people are only a fraction (c . 10± 20% ) of those in the advanced econom ies (Froebel et al ., 1980; Elson & Pearson, 1981; Safa, 1981; Sklair, 1989, 1991, pp. 93± 107; Tiano, 1990, pp. 194± 195). W ithin South-east Asia itself, there has been a gradual spread of m ore standardised export processing production away from newly industrialised countries (NICs) such as Taiwan, South K orea and Singapore, to lower w age countries such as M alaysia, and latterly, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Southern China (D icken, 1990, p. 218; Eviota, 1992, pp. 131± 132). W hile the pace of industrial relocation from the advanced econom ies to the Third W orld is argued to be slowing down for a num ber of reasons, including greater prospects of autom ation in the wake of recent technological developments (see Pearson, 1986, p. 68; D icken, 1990, p. 221; Eviota, 1992, pp. 112, 125), new zones continue to be planned and present ones are to be expanded (often with the addition of ® rm s from the newly-industrialising countries of Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan). In the speci® c case of the Philippines, the



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com bined facts of w omen having am on g the best education levels in Asia and the lowest wage rates, has led Mariya Villariba (1993, p. 15) to describe the fem ale population as a `magnet of cheap labour for foreign investors’ . Indeed, w om en look set to continue their participation in export-oriented ventures under the increasingly outw ard-orie nted, liberalising regime of the incumbent president, Fidel Ramos. The establishm ent of branch plants which are effectively `supplier’ or `subcontra cting’ ® rms (Pineda-Ofreneo, 1988, p. 158) of major transnational corporations (TN Cs) have a number of advantages for investors over the m ore traditional `joint venture’ arrangem ents in that: International subcon tracting reduces the visibility of TN Cs in terms of direct equity investments, marks a shift from equity control to m arket and technological control, and avoids the problem of nationalisation in cases where the supplier or subcontractor are industries w holly owned and operated by the ª natives themselvesº ¼ (Pineda-O freneo, 1988, p. 159) M ost factories within the four main EPZs in the Philippines (Bataan, Baguio, Cavite and M actanÐ see Fig. 1) are of this type, w ith garments and electronics production being forem ost. Garm ents and electronics, in turn, provide 50% of Philippine exports by value (Econom ist Intelligence Unit {EIU}, 1993a, p. 3), and have tended to show grow th rates in excess of other exports. For example, in the period between 1987 and 1991, the rise in electronics exports averaged 12.6% per annum as against 11.7% for exports as a whole (N ational Statistical Of® ce {NSO }, 1992, p. v). In 1992 semi-conductors became the leading export product of the country, maintaining this position into 1993 with sales in the ® rst quarter of the latter being 31% up on the ® rst quarter of 1992 (Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 2). Despite having been displaced as the top Philippine export sector in the last couple of years, the garm ent industry has continued to perform positively, with a rise in exports of 16.7% between 1991 and 1992 at a tim e when m anufacturing exports as a whole rose by 13% (EIU, 1993b , p. 23). Given the concentration of garments and electronics plants in the EPZs, it is no surprise that against relatively modest levels of grow th in national export earnin gs in 1992 (c . 10% ), the earnings from the four zones registered an increase of 31% to US$666 million (EIU, 1993c, p. 22). T he M a cta n Ex po rt Processin g Zone

The M actan E xport Processing Zone (MEPZ) itself w as established in 1978 and is currently second largest of the four main EPZs in term s of num bers of ® rm s, levels of investm ent, econom ic perform ance and num bers of people employed (Chant and M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 2). Situated in Lapu-Lapu, one of ® ve cities constituting the second largest urban agglomeration in the Philippines, M etro Cebu, M EPZ accounts for nearly half of Cebu province’ s entire export sales and is the main focus of industrial investment in the V isayas Area D evelopment Investm ent Program me (VA DIP) (Chant & McIlwaine, 1995). S iz e and D evelopm ent

As of 1992, the 42 factories in operation in the 119-hectare zone employed a total of 15,038 workers, 77% of whom w ere women (EPZA , 1992). By M arch 1993, 43 out of a registered total of 53 ® rm s were open (MEPZA , 1993), and in May 1993, by which time approval had been given to a further seven ® rms, plans were under way to

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T A B LE I. Produc t, ow nersh ip, size of w orkforc e an d num ber of fem ale work ers in export-m anufac turing ® rm s interview ed in M EPZ, Lapu -Lapu

N o. of w orkers

N o. of fem ale w orkers

Percentage of fem ale w orkers

Japanese Japanese Japanese A m erican (US)

67 188 332 919

21 154 313 753

31% 82% 94% 82%

G arm ents L ad ies su its an d dresses Sp on sw ear and jackets Sp ortsw ear and jeans Sp ortsw ear and jackets

Japanese T aiwanese F ilipino B ritish

251 389 425 581

231 343 327 423

92% 88% 77% 74%

O ther W ood veneer Jewellery com ponents

Italian Japanese

38 78

13 52

34% 67%

Produ ct

N ationality

E lectronics Electric lighting ® xtures B inoculars C ar stereos A utomotive w ire harnesses

N B : N am es of ® rrn s are not disclosed for reason s of con® dentiality.

accom modate new plants by leasing an additional 120 hectares from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (M CIAA) (Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 2; see also D epartment of Trade and Industry {DT I} Region V II, 1992, p. 27). Nearly half the factories in MEPZ are Japanese, but other countries represented in the zone include the USA, Germ any, France, Italy and the UK, along with Asian NICs such as Taiwan and K orea (V itug, 1993, p. 24, Chant & McIlwaine, 1995). Some of the largest and m ost well-know n com panies include T imex, NEC, United T echnologies, Pentax, MaitlandSmith, Taiyo-Yuden, M uramoto A udio-visual and National Semi-conductors (EPZA, 1993; MEPZA , 1993; R eyes Churchill, 1993, p. 6; V itug, 1993, p. 24). The total revenue from MEPZ exports amounted to US$264 million in 1992. The net trade balance in the same year was estimated to be US$189 million, w ith employers having paid out US$30.3 million in salaries, and US$75 million for imports (EPZA, 1993). The high cost of the latter re¯ ects the very high levels of im ported com pon ents and machinery in M EPZ ® rm s. In the authors’ survey of 10 ® rm s in the zone in 1993 (see Table I), all machinery and 95% of m aterials and com ponents were found to have been imported from abroad. In the case of electronics production , for exam ple, all com ponents except packaging and boxes com e from the parent com pany or other branch plants. In garm ent factories, cloth, buttons and trimm ings are again either received direct from the parent com pany or from individual suppliers (in Hong K ong, Taiwan, Korea, India or Japan), with only threads and packing materials being purchased locally (Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4).

P roduc tion C haracteristics

This high degree of dependence on foreign capital and inputs, together w ith limited technolog y transfer, does not augur well for indigenous development. A s the Cebu Chamber of Comm erce and Industry (1993, p. 3) points out: `Philippine industry essentially adds a thin slice of value-added to im ported com ponents, then re-exports them’ , going on to classify the export sector as àn enclave with surprisingly little linkage



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to the domestic econom y’ (see also Espiritu, 1988; Pineda-Ofreneo, 1988). Indeed, as Peter D icken (1990, pp. 198± 199) observes, next to Indonesia the Philippines has the largest m anufacturing sector in the whole of South-east Asia {3}, yet in terms of value added per capita it rank as one of the lowest (only US$140.5 in 1985, com pared with US$146.3 in Thailand, US$220.6 in Malaysia and US$1658 in Singapore). Although by 1990 the Philippines record ed an increase in per capita value added to US$181.5, in relative terms the country had dropped furth er behind Thailand (US$375) and Singapore (US$3450) (W orld Bank, 1993, p. 248, Table 6). Having said this, while export processing ® rms are often regarded as producing interm ediate goods only (the partial assembly of pre-fabricated parts, the piecing together of products which are then ® nished elsewhere, often in the country of origin of the TN C and so onÐ see Elson & Pearson, 1981, p. 88; H eyzer, 1986, p. 93; Shoesm ith, 1986; Pineda-O freneo, 1987, p. 93; Aldana, 1989; D icken, 1990, p. 217; IBON, 1990, p. 15; H ossfeld, 1991, p. 14), only a minority of ® rms (three out of 10) in our M EPZ survey were found to corre spond with this pattern {4}. Garment ® rms producing brand names such as Nike and Adidas sportswear and Levi’s jeans, for exam ple, m ay import the vast bulk of their raw materials, but manufacture the com plete product themselves, right through from the cutting to ® nishing stage (see also Eviota, 1992, p. 112). Two of the four electronics ® rm s surveyed (one producing electrical lighting ® xtures, the other binoculars) also assemble com plete item s on the prem ises. The latter seems to be re¯ ecting a trend for South-east Asian electronics branch plants to become increasingly sophisticated and to m ake end products (see Scott, 1987; W ilson, 1992, p. 25). The rationale behind this apparent shift from partial to com plete production lies, on the one hand, in the rising costs of labour in the advanced econom ies, and, on the other, in the increasingly high levels of education and training am ong workers in developing countries. W hile education rarely equips workers with the speci® c skills for carrying out specialised tasks in factory production, it is assum ed to increase their potential for learning how to do com plicated jobs and to inculcate a more disciplined `work ethic’ (see Reyes Churchill, 1983, p. 8). In the Philippines in particular, the fact that English is an integral com ponent of high school education and widely spoken, further facilitates the ease of training industrial operatives (Shoesm ith, 1986, p. 211; Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 4; see also Sklair, 1991, p. 98). Finally, however, it would appear that econom ic considerations are uppermost. The manager of the Japanese ® rm producing binoculars in M EPZ (see Table I) reported that the daily w age in Japan is now US$80 com pared with only US$4.2 in the Visayas. As a result, the com pany had decided to transfer the entire production process outside Japan, including testing and quality control which had traditionally been conducted within the parent com pany (see also Heyzer, 1986, p. 93; O’ Connor, 1987, p. 259; IBO N, 1990, p. 39± 40). In order to do this, considerable investm ent has been devoted to training Filipinos, with most supervisors undergoing intensive 6-m onth training program mes in the factory itself, and then being sent to Japan for a further 6 m onths. W hile this initiative has been expensive, the manager stressed that it proved considerably more cost-effective than sending semi-® nished binoculars back to Japan for com pletion (see Chant and McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). W hile the trend towards total production might be associated with a higher degree of skills and technolog y transfer than traditionally com m on in export processing plants, however it should be noted that Filipinos rarely ascend to senior m anagerial positions. W hile all nine of the foreign com panies in our survey employ Filipinos as personnel, accounts and section m anagers, only four engage them in core management and advisory posts. The ® rm s in question are mixed: one is the Taiwanese garment ® rm which employs a Filipino


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òperations m anager’ who is second in com mand to the general m anager from Taipei. A second is the Japanese binocular m anufacturer which em ploys a Filipino in the position of assistant general manager. Anothe r Japanese ® rm (producing jewellery com ponents) has an indigenous general manager together w ith a series of locally-recruited technical advisers, and the same applies to the US electronics com pany. The reasons for placing Filipinos in high-level m anagerial positions include the desire to cut costs (Filipinos are cheaper to employ not only because of lower wages but because they do not have to be given the overseas living allowances of their foreign counterparts), to solve problems associated with maintaining expatriate motivation (foreign m anagers are often claimed to have dif® culties adjusting to life in the Philippines), and to facilitate easier com m unication and better staff relations with m anual workers. R ecognising that the EPZA encourages the transfer of senior management posts to nationals within ® ve years of running a com pany in the Philippines {5}, the average age of the ® rm s which had done this in our ow n survey was only 3 years, indicating that bureaucratic considerations are possibly of less signi® cance than those relating to production imperatives per se . L ab our A rrangem ents

One ® nal aspect of M EPZ’s industrial operations w hich should be examined is that while, as the above would suggest, the bulk of export processing m anufacture is carried out within the zone itself, a small number of ® rms also subcontract certain aspects of production to outside workers. Generally speaking, the M EPZA tends to discourage this form of labour practice, granting special licenses to engage outside contra ctors on ly when ® rms do not have the space or facilities to perform a particular operation on site and/or where there are staunch guarantees that this will not result in any reduction in the number of factory employees. In turn, subcontracting is only permitted to workshops or other ® rms, not individuals (Chant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). The com panies to which this applies in our survey include the ® rm making binoculars, w hich contra cts out the m achining of central axes and the powder coating of bodywork, and to three out of the four garm ents ® rms, one of which subcontracts to a sm all ® rm to do intricate em broidery, another which subcontra cts this in addition to screen printing and the special washing of delicate fabrics, and one w hich contra cts out general assembly when orders are in excess of in-house capacity. Garments not only have a highly volatile market which conceivably requires greater leeway for contraction and expansion than other types of product, but the m anufacturing process, relying as it does on `traditional’ skills, tends to lend itself more easily to this kind of arrangement, with the obvious bonus to employers of furth er cuts in production costs (Pineda-O freneo, 1988; Eviota, 1992, pp. 112± 113). Subcontra cting not only gives ® rm s a ¯ exible supply of workers, but reduces the overheads associated with social security and labour legislation and, perhaps m ost importan tly, diminishes the wage bill (Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). The fact that the m ajority of outworkers are women would also seem to give employers scope to pay subsistence-level piece rates. W ith reference to the Philippines in general in the late 1970s, for exam ple, Pineda-O freneo (1988, p. 160) notes that female production and related w orkers in rural areas (m uch garment assembly is farmed out to cottage industries), earned less than half their m ale counterparts, com pared with tw o-third s of average m ale earnings in urban areas. From a general survey conducted by the authors of households and workers in Lapu-Lapu City (w here the MEPZ is situated), and in the nearby city of Cebu, it would appear that the vast bulk of outworkers in the 1990s are


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again female, who, on average, earn only US$7.2 a w eek, a mere quarter of the m ean wage of fem ale factory workers (Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 3) {6}. In turn, women work ers as a whole tend to earn only around half the salaries of their male counterparts (Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 3). These differentials are explored in m ore depth in the follow ing sections which consider more speci® cally the nature of fem ale recruitment and occupational status in Mactan. G end er a nd L ab ou r R ecruitm ent in M actan


E ntry C riteria S ex and gender. A s in EPZs in other parts of the Philippines, other South-east A sian countries and oth er parts of the developing world, ® rms in the MEPZ show a strong preference for female labour, w ith women constituting 80% of w orkers in the com panies surveyed, notw ithstanding some variation according to product (see Table I). For example, the highest proportions of women are employed in garments (81% ), follow ed by electronics (76% ), jewellery com ponen ts (67% ), and w ood products (34% ). V ariations appear to hinge upon the relative level of technology used in production processes, with garm ent ® rms being the least autom ated, yet having the largest numbers of fem ale operatives. The inverse relationship betw een degree of technology and female recruitm ent is also apparent between ® rm s within product sectors: for exam ple, the electronics factory with the lowest proportion of wom en w orkers (31% Ð see Table I) is that which uses the greatest amount of high technology equipment, w ith the m anager inform ing us that he preferred to employ men on the grounds that they were more adept at operating m achinery. The association of industrial mechanisation and m ale labour has been widely noted elsewhere (see for exam ple, Aguiar, 1980; Pearson, 1986; Saf® oti, 1986; Joekes, 1987; O ’Connor, 1987), even if Alison Scott (1988) observes that it is not really know n how this association arose in the ® rst place, nor how it is sustained. Regardless of the fact that there seems to be no plausible basis for m en’s putative `natural af® nity’ with m achinery, the assumption is pervasive and exerts a profoun d in¯ uence upon em ployer decision-making, not only in M actan, but in export processing operations around the world, as we discuss below. A ge. Besides a general preference for women among rank-and-® le M EPZ work ers, a further similarity w ith EPZs elsewhere is a marked bias tow ards young operatives. M ost em ployers only consider taking on w orkers under 25 years, although an upper age limit is set at 32 in one garment factory. Younger workers are thought to be more productive, to have better health, and be more malleable in terms of adhering to the com pany ethos, or as one m anager said `to be m oulded into the com pany way’ (see below). Youth is given particular priority in electronics ® rms, partly because good eyesight is essential for precision w ork, but also because young people are thought to be m ore adept at learning the highly specialised assembly operations involved. Garment ® rm s, on the other hand, often prefer experienced workers and are thus prepared to take on older people (see also FernaÂ ndez-Kelly, 1983a , 1983b ; Pearson, 1986; Tiano, 1990; Safa, 1993). V ariations also em erge w hen nationality is taken into account, with Japanese ® rm s rarely recruiting anyone over 25 years, although this could also relate to the fact that most Japanese com panies are engaged in electronics production. E duca tion.

Alongside youth, m ost employers prefer their work ers to be educated, usually


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to high school level, the main reason being that a certain degree of intelligence is required to understand m achine operations and/or to undergo training programmes. M oreover, as m entioned earlier, high school graduates are m ore likely to have an understanding of English, the usual lingua franc a of training schemes and main medium of com munication between employees and foreign m anagers (see also Shoesmith, 1986, p. 211; R eyes Churchill, 1993, pp. 7± 8). Again, there are slight variations between electronics and garment factories, in so far as the latter are prepared to trade-off education against practical experience, with the result that a proportion of the workforc e m ay have only prim ary level schooling (see also FernaÂ ndez-Kelly, 1983b ; Tiano, 1990 on M exico; Reardon, 1991a on South Korea) {7}. The only exception here is the Japanese garm ent ® rm which requires not only a minimum high school leaving certi® cate, but is increasingly employing only college graduates. G iven the prom inence of Japanese investm ent in M actan, this might suggest more exacting entry requirem ents in the future, although most of the employers seem reluctant to resort to similar degrees of educational credentialism for fear of creating a work force with high levels of expectation and low levels of com m itm ent. This latter point is interesting, since in contra st with a number of other studies (e.g. FernaÂ ndez-Kelly, 1983b ; Pineda-O freneo, 1987, p. 96; Hossfeld, 1991, pp. 15± 16), most employers in M actan claim to favour a workforc e with long-term interest in their jobs, w hich is also a reason why the majority take people straight from school. `Fresh’ young graduates are seen as likely to develop loyalty to the com pany and to stay in their posts. Other factors in their favour include the notion that recent subjection to school discipline will facilitate willingness to take orders on the factory ¯ oor (see also Heyzer, 1986, p. 101; Eviota, 1992, pp. 120± 121). Y oung school leavers with little or no experience are also thought to accept lower pay {8}, to be m ore easily dissuaded from participating in union activity, and to have fewer `bad habits’ such as tardiness or slacking (see also Pineda-O freneo, 1987, p. 96, 1988, p. 160). M inimal experience of other work practices is also likely to be conducive to the ready acquisition of new skills: electronics com panies, in particular, prefer to train workers from scratch, m ainly because production operations within these ® rm s are so distinct. Although garm ent factories seem slightly less concerned with limiting recruitm ent to fresh graduates (w ith two of the four ® rms in the survey actually preferring experienced people in order to cut down on training costs), the Japanese and Taiwanese com panies tend to favour nurturing w orkers from an early and ùncorrup ted’ age. M arital status. Related to the desire to recruit young (especially young female) workers, is a preference for single people. In accordance w ith the ® ndings of other studies, M actan’s employers deem single w om en to be m ore productive, to be less prone to absenteeism, and to be m ore disposed to work overtime, the basic assumption being that they have fewer responsibilities in the hom e (see for exam ple, Shoesmith, 1986, p. 212; Eviota, 1992, p. 120; also Yun, 1988, p. 97 on M alaysia). Having said this, few employers expressed objections to existing fem ale workers getting m arried or having children (see also O ng, 1987, p. 148 on M alaysia) {9}. M aternity bene® ts are not, as might be expected, seen as a major problem (see for exam ple, ILMS, 1984, p. 12; Safa, 1990, p. 77), besides which older, married women are often thought to be `workah olics’ because they have families to support and are therefore more conscientious (see also Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, p. 13 on Singapore; Hein, 1986, p. 288 on M auritius; Safa, 1990, pp. 77± 78 on Puerto R ico and the D ominican Republic). W hile som ewhat contradictory, this situation queries the belief that wom en workers in E PZs are virtually always single, and that upon m arrying, they m ay be dismissed or voluntarily leave the labour force (see also



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Elson & Pearson , 1981, p. 93; ILM S, 1984, p. 12; Pineda-O freneo, 1987, p. 96; Foo & Lim, 1989, p. 221; Safa, 1990, p. 77; Hossfeld, 1991, p. 16) {10}. Indeed, eight out of 10 employers in our survey not only seek a young workforc e w ho m ay be trained and `moulded’ by the com pany but, interestingly, as mentioned earlier, are also concerned to foster long-term loyalty. W hile there m ay be a preference for new recruits to be young, inexperienced school leavers, therefore , the aim of encouraging workers to remain with the com panies seems to override w hatever misgivings som e em ployers m ay have about m arital circumstances at later stages in a w orker’ s career. D esire for loyalty is particularly stressed by Japanese ® rms in Mactan, possibly re¯ ecting the more general practice ascribed to com panies w ithin and/or originating in Japan of fostering a sense of family-like duty and com m itment am ongst em ployees (see Carney & O’ Kelly, 1990). Indeed, the insistence by Japanese em ployers that workers conform to culturally-speci® c work regimes and stay with the ® rm s in the long term may also help account for their com parative rigidity in the range of entry requirements already discussed {11}. M igrant status. One ® nal criterion, often assumed to be im portant for entering employm ent in export-p rocessing ® rms, is migrant status, many studies having noted that m igrants, particularly from poor, rural areas, are regarded as more èxploitable’ due to the pressure upon them to provide for natal families (see Arm strong & M cGee, 1985, p. 205; Porpora et al ., 1989, p. 275). However, w hile our survey revealed that the majority of workers in M actan were born outside the locality, this is rarely the result of deliberate policies on the part of ® rm s themselves {12}. O nly on e manager (in a Japanese electronics com pany) stressed a preference for m igrants, believing that recruiting people from a wide range of places would lessen risks of unionisation (shared provincial identity might conceivably give rise to greater solidarity am on g workers). Having said this, m ost com panies desired their labour force to reside in Lapu-Lapu (as opposed to other parts of M etro Cebu), mainly to guard against late arrival for their shifts. C om pany S creening S y stem s

Over and above these person al prerequisites, all ® rms in MEPZ operate strict screening systems, w hereby applicants have to obtain police and/or National Bureau of Investigation clearance, provide a residence permit, and usually a letter of com m endation from a b arangay captain/leader as well {13}, with these procedures often being double-checked by the M EPZA itself. In the few cases where applicants have held previous jobs, references are also sought from form er employers. The American electronics ® rm in the sample even goes as far as em ploying a private agency to investigate new recruits in order to circum vent potential corrup tion and bribery via routine methods. W hile the aims of the above procedures are primarily to ensure the personal integrity of applicants, they also serve to identify whether people have been involved as àgitators’ (strikers, union activists and so on) in previous employm ent. Other passports to M EPZ ® rm s include a m edical certi® cate (obtained from the D epartment of Labour and Employm ent at the applicant’ s own expense), or a full m edical examination by a com pany doctor. In two electronics factories (both Japanese) female applicants are also expected to undergo pregnancy tests, ostensibly on grounds of protecting them from health problem s (although none of the operations seemed to carry particular hazards for pregnant w om en). In a further two cases (one electronics and one garm ent factory), there is a height bar (5ft 5ins for m en and 5ft 3ins for women) because m achinery and work tables are tailored to taller w orkers from developed countries. In

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S . C hant & C . M cI lw aine 100

Electronics Garments

80 60 % 40


20 0

Admin Pre-assem Assembly

Post- Warehouse Maintenance assem

F IG . 2. Percentage of w om en in different departments in electronics an d garm ent fac tories in the M actan Export Proc essing Z on e.

virtually all factories, applicants also have to undergo some kind of intelligence and/or practical skills test, ranging from assessm ents of manual dexterity and eyesight, to m athematical and general IQ examinations, and in garm ent factories, sewing tests as well {14}. In spite of these numerous and exacting eligibility criteria, demand for em ploym ent in the zone is high. Most employers reported that they rarely needed to advertise positions, since ® les were held of people who had approached the ® rms as `walk-in’ applicants. A m ore com mon method of recruitment, how ever, is throu gh the so-called `backer’ system whereby existing work ers recom m end a relative or friend. Given that the reputation of the form er is on the line, this helps to ensure that ® rms obtain productive and responsible em ployees (see also Reardon, 1991a , p. 25 on South Korea). Two com panies (both Japanese electronics plants who favour recent graduates) also recruit directly from local vocational schools and colleges. W hile selection proce dures in all ® rms are fairly stringent, especially w hen com pared with export manufacturing ® rm s outside the zon e {15}, Japanese and/or electronics ® rm s seem to have the most exacting standards, w hich to some degree show s interesting interrelations with the nature of divisions of labour and status between male and fem ale work ers within the plants them selves. G end er, O ccupa tion al S egm entation and M o bility

Accepting that recruitm ent in M EPZ factories is highly selective of women, the reasons for (and consequences of) female preference are perhaps best understood throu gh an examination of the gender com position of departm ents or sections w ithin factories. Considering electronics and garment ® rm s in particular, women predom inate in all departments except m aintenance, and tend to be most heavily con centrated in assembly (83% in garments, 94% in electronics), post-assembly or ® nishing (90% in garments, 63% in electronics), and administration (78% in garments, 53% in electronics) (see Fig. 2). Maintenance is an exclusively male dom ain because men are thought to be stronger and more adept in the heavy and/or technical jobs of cleaners, janitors, engineers and



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so on. Indeed, m ale preference in posts demanding physical strength or technical expertise usually accounts for their inclusion in departments w hich otherwise employ a m ainly female w orkforc e. This is particularly pertinent in pre-assembly or preparation: in garment ® rm s for example, men are 43% of preparatory workers, usually assigned to the machine-cutting of large piles of fabric which are then distributed to the factory ¯ oor. Accord ing to one em ployer this job requires `strong hands’ and `presence of mind’ to operate the relevant machinery, w hile another cited `masculine strength’ as essential for carryin g heavy bundles of cloth (see also Heyzer, 1986, p. 103; Eviota, 1992, p. 115). The majority of women employed in pre-assembly, on the other hand, are involved in m ore labour-intensive tasks such as sorting m aterial into batches, usually on groun ds of the assumption that they are `m ore m eticulous’. W hile fewer men tend to be employed in the preparation stage of electronic projects (33% ), the same kinds of reasons are used to justify their con centration in certain tasks. For example, in the electrical lighting factory, the spinning and punching of aluminium disks involves the operation of m achines requiring both strength and technical know-how , and only m en are thought to possess the relevant capacities. In addition to gender-stereotyped assum ptions about disposition and skills, m ost employers state that women never apply for these jobs, even when they are ostensibly open to both sexes. This effectively leaves women to assembly work, w hich not only em ploys the majority of factory operatives, but which also has the highest proportion of female labour (over 90% in most cases) (see Fig. 2). In garm ent factories, for example, machine-operated sewing is alm ost entirely carried out by w om en, not only because they are con sidered m ore dextrous or, as one employer declared, `because w omen have good hands’ , but also because sewing is presumed to be a more `natural’ activity for w om en in the light of their domestic roles. The form er (physiological) argum ent is perhaps the more pervasive, however, with one personnel m anager claiming that women were m ore suitable for sewing because `their anatom y and biology allows them to sit in on e place for longer than m en’. The few m en in sewing departm ents (mainly in the Filipino-owned factory), use larger machines for specialised tasks such as overstitching (for seams on jeans, for example) which require strength to operate. In electronics plants, assembly usually includes the ® tting, moulding and/or splicing of electrical com pon ents, and is again dominated by w om en (over 90% ), throu gh their purportedly greater capacity for patience, concentration and endurance of higher levels of boredom as well as their m anual aptitudes (see also Elson & Pearson, 1981, p. 95; Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, pp. 12± 13). In only tw o electronics factories are men employed in assembly, in on e case because some of the US-made machinery is geared to taller people, and in the other because the ® nal stage of assembly requires the use of machines with levers which are deemed `too heavy’ for w om en to operate. The oth er heavily fem ale-dom inated departm ent is post-assembly or ® nishing (including quality control, and in the case of garment factories, the trimm ing of stray threads, washing and pressing). Again, em ployers consider women to be m ore adept at these tasks, which involve precision, care and patience, or as one employer stated, for `the obvious reason’ that w omen are more `m eticulous and careful’ in selection procedures. Although women con stitute a sm aller proportion of employees in warehouse and packing departments, their overall predom inance in these sections is perhaps surprising given that m en are usually preferred for jobs which require obvious physical exertion (see Fig. 2). Indeed, em ployers were unable to justify this except in so far as garments and electrical goods are not particularly heavy items. One employer also asserted that women were m ore able to w ithstand the boredom of repetitive counting and packaging w ork.

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S . C hant & C . M cI lw aine Senior management 6.6% female

Middle management 82.6% female


Supervisors 54.2% female

R ank-and-file operatives 88% female

F IG . 3. F em ale represe ntation according to oc cupational strata in the M actan Export Processin g Zone.

Besides manual w ork, fem ale employees are also given preference in administrative recruitment, although this is m ore m arked in garment ® rm s than in electronics (see Fig. 2). The reasons for women’s concentration in administration are arguably based on more positive assumptions about them than those cited with regard to rank-and-® le occupations, in that they are perceived as being `reliable’, èf® cient’ , `good with ® gures’ , and as having sound organisational abilities. Having said this, while all com panies employ some wom en in management, this is mainly in accounts and personnel where 82.6% of m anagers are female (see Fig. 3). H ow ever, when higher managerial positions are considered, only two out of 30 (6.6% ) senior decision-making posts are held by w omen. M oreover, despite the prevalence of wom en in middle managem ent in M EPZ, this is rarely in proportion to the overall num ber of female em ployees, and it is frequently the case that female operations sections have male heads or supervisors (see Fig. 3; also Ong, 1987, p. 160; Foo & Lim , 1989, p. 221; Eviota, 1992, p. 115). Not only is there considerable horizon tal segmentation between m ale and fem ale work ers therefore, but vertical segmentation as well. Moreover, these patterns are relatively entren ched in that w om en in particular are usually unable to move sideways (into different jobs or departments) or upwards (into higher status positions). For example, while women’ s preponderance in adm inistration might suggest that they have experienced som e ascent up the occupational ladder, adm inistrative w orkers are virtually always recruited straight from university or other professional jobs, rather than from the pool of labour on the factory ¯ oor. In turn, even where women are em ployed as personnel managers as they are in eight out of the 10 factories, there seem to be few differences in the position of women in the ® rm hierarchies. In other words, the existence of fem ale managers does not seem to have a positive effect on female career mobility in general, as has been observed in other conte xts (see for example, Anker & Hein, 1986, p. ch. 1; Chant, 1991, ch. 3). This is further reinforced in M actan by the belief, especially in Japanese ® rms, that the creation of a `family atm osphere’ makes for ef® cient m anagement. The `family’ reference has particularly deleterious effects for women in its em bodiment of the symbolism of father-® gure/patriarchal managers wielding authoritarian con trol over `daughters’ (w orkers) (see also Armstron g & M cGee, 1985, p. 211; Pineda-O freneo, 1987, p. 101; Eviota, 1992, pp. 120± 121).


161

W hile women in the rank and ® le remain con® ned to speci® c jobs w ithin speci® c departments, however, their m ale counterparts seem to have considerably greater scope for horizon tal m obility, largely on account of their assum ed propensity to acquire the skills involved in m ore sophisticated m achine operations. As production in various ® rm s (especially electronics plants) becom es increasingly autom ated, for exam ple, m en are usually given an opportunity to move, if not upwards, then at least horizon tally. W omen, on the other hand, are likely to remain, at best, con signed to m anual assembly operations and at w orst, to encounter displacem ent.


T he R ole of G ender S tereotypes in O cc up ational S egm entation

W ith a view to situating the above ® ndings in a wider conceptual conte xt, it is obvious that gender form s a primary basis of recruitment and occupational differentiation in M actan, not to mention that the pro® tability of Filipino women’ s labour has probably been instrumental in giving rise to the location of ® rms in the Zone in the ® rst place. In rationalising their preference for wom en w orkers, em ployers make reference to a range of gender stereotypes, m any of which have been observed by researchers in other contexts. One such stereotype relates to physiological factors, perhaps best encapsulated by the concept of `nim ble ® ngers’ developed by D iane E lson & Ruth Pearson (1981). This assumes that women’s hands are of an appropriate size and dexterity to perform the intricate tasks required in m ost assembly and ® nishing jobs, and at a faster pace and with a greater level of precision than m en. In turn, women’s association with jobs requiring a deft, light touch is reinforced over time, often leading to their exclusion from more skilled (and usually better paid) tasks involving mechanised apparatus (Rohin i, 1991; H eng Leng & N g Choon Sim, 1993). As Elizabeth Eviota (1992, p. 115) asserts: `skill, an objective category, becomes im plicated with subjective gender ideology to pre-empt wom en from higher technology w ork and higher wages’, also noting that wom en’s work is de® ned as low-skilled because women do it (see also Phillips, 1983, p. 17). Another set of gender stereotypes relates to perceptions about female psychology, forem ost among w hich is the notion that women have a patient disposition and capacity for high levels of concentration which, in turn, equip them for carrying out monoton ous, repetitive tasks (see also Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, p. 13; Sklair, 1991, p. 98). Beyond this, women are deemed to possess passive and docile natures which, in com bination with social norm s of subordination and/or subjugation to men, mean they are likely to accept existing w orking practices and to eschew m aking demands or instigating `subversive’ behaviour (see also Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, p. 15; Heyzer, 1986, p. 98; Shoesm ith, 1986, p. 87; Standing, 1989, p. 1080). A ® nal set of stereotypes relates to fam ily factors and, particularly, the prospective increase in women’ s involvement in their hom es and in reproductive labour over the course of the life-cycle. W riters have often stressed, for exam ple, that employers in EPZs prefer young fem ale workers to mature women because the form er are likely to be freer of family responsibilities and will accordingly be more dedicated to their jobs (see for example, Eviota, 1992, p. 120) {16}. Indeed, the assumption that household and parenting duties w ill take precedence at later stages of the female life-cycle is also relevant in so far as employers are often observed to take on young women in the expectation that they will leave work voluntarily on marriage or childbirth, and thereby w eaken com mitm ent to labour organisation and/or reduce threats of redundancy paym ents (see Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, p. 12; Foo & Lim, 1989, p. 221; Carney & O’K elly, 1990, p. 137; H ossfeld, 1991, p. 16). In the conte xt of the Philippines and certainly M actan, how ever,


162


the situation is rather different (see also Zosa-Feranil, 1984). W hile it is clearly the case, for example, that Filipino women marry and have children, this does not necessarily m ean that their incom e-generating activities take second place to reproductive tasks. Indeed, women, as wives and daughters, often bear a greater share of ® nancial responsibility for households than men (see Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). Thus, although em ployers may, as often happens, assume that young w om en are free of fam ily duties and for this reason favour their recruitment, the fact that they usually permit wom en to stay follow ing m arriage and childbirth is indicative that there is no signi® cant change in their productivity, besides w hich this com plies with the aim of m ost com panies in the zone of fostering long-term staff loyalty. In short, therefore, Mactan reveals rather different patterns to m any oth er studies in so far as the recruitment of young wom en is seen as the ® rst stage of a long period of employm ent, during which time work ers are intended to build increasingly greater com mitment to the ® rm . For this reason, married wom en can usually continue in work , w hich m ay to som e degree also relate to recognition by employers of the high pro® le of econom ic activity w ithin Filipino women’s roles throu ghout the life-cycle. M oreover, regardless of age and marital status, women are almost invariably described as more diligent than m en, whose com m itm ent to em ploym ent is not only seen as weaker, but w hose tendency to indulge in `b isy os’ (vices), especially drinking, is observed to slow them down at work and/or to affect their concentration. G end er, P ay a nd W elfare B en e® ts

D espite the problem s often identi® ed with m ale w orkers, there are few differentials in pay and bene® ts between men and women, at least in the same jobs. T he bulk of workers in the zone earn at least the daily m inimum wage (P105 or US$4.2) for an 8± 9 hour day, 6 days a week (see also ILM S, 1984, p. 22) {17}. The weekly wage of P630 (US$25.2) is also supplem ented by a m onthly cost of living allowance (CO LA), which means an extra sum of around US$1± 3 every seventh day. W hile this is the basic starting package, m ost workers in the ® rm s surveyed are paid more, with an average weekly w age of P727 (US$29.1) inclusive of COLA . In addition, employees in all but two com panies work overtim e, paid at the hourly rate of 25% of the minim um wage for weekdays and 30% on Sundays {18}, which brings average salaries up to P893 (US$35.7) a week. Three out of 10 ® rm s also pay productivity bonuses, in one case to every worker when the factory reaches its productivity targets, and in the oth er two, to individuals (m ainly fem ale assembly line operatives) who consistently ful® l and/or exceed their quotas. W hile there are few differences in wage levels between branches of activity (workers in electronics earn roughly the same average w ages as those in garments), variations emerge on account of nationality, w ith Japanese ® rm s paying the highest, and the US and Filipino com panies the least. Although pay differentials w ithin ® rms depend primarily on seniority, with m ost work ers being awarded an extra P2± 3 per day for each year worked, there are few variations between departm ents. Having said this, skilled jobs usually receive higher rates of remuneration and, since m en dominate these occupations, they often have higher earnings than women. For example, in one garm ent factory, the all-m ale group of skilled sample makers and utility work ers or `¯ oaters’ (workers who ® ll in for all tasks perform ed in the factory), earn an extra P5 per day com pared w ith the predominantly fem ale sewers, ® nishers and so on. However, while it is often cited that em ployers in EPZs prefer to em ploy women because they can pay them low er wages than they would men in the



163

same jobs (see for example, Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, pp. 5± 6; Arm strong & M cGee, 1985, p. 204; Heyzer, 1986, p. 104; Standing, 1989, p. 1080; Gallin, 1990, p. 179; W ard, 1990, p. 13; R eardon & R ivers, 1991, p. 103), this is not entirely the case in M actan (see also Addison & D emery, 1988, pp. 385± 386; Sklair, 1991, pp. 96± 101). Although some m en earn higher wages on account of their insertion into jobs de® ned as skilled, all regular workers, regardless of sex, are guaranteed at least the minim um wage, with length of service counting equally in favour of men and women (in term s of pay, if not prom otional prospectsÐ see earlier). W here relevant, productivity bonuses are also distributed to both male and female operatives. The only factor other than skill categorisation which can underm ine fem ale wage levels is the apprenticeship system w hereby new recruits (known as `probationary work ers’ or àpprentices’) may be paid, by law, at 75% of the minim um wage (P78.8 {US$3.2}) for a maxim um of 6 months, provided training is given by the com pany during this period (see Nolledo, 1992, pp. 28 and 189; also Sklair, 1991, p. 100). M ost factories not only take advantage of this clause, but also abuse it, either by not providing training or by dismissing w orkers before their 6-m onth probation is up, thereby allow ing them to keep wage costs down, and in some cases to minim ise paym ent of other bene® ts such as social security (see below; also Fuentes & Ehrenreich, 1983, p. 22; Ong, 1987, p. 160; IBON , 1990, p. 50; D on ald, 1991, p. 199). Moreove r, as Elizabeth Eviota (1992, p. 121) points out in the case of electronics ® rm s, 6-m onth apprenticeships are usually way in excess for jobs which can effectively be learned within 1 or 2 weeks. Since probationary workers are usually found in manual assembly jobs, and wom en m ake up the bulk of this group, this presents another case where fem ale operatives are exposed to greater wage discrimination than their m ale counterparts {19}. As noted above, this is also likely to put larger numbers of women in a position where they do not receive statutory social security (SSS) covering m aternity, death, disability and M edicare (the state health care scheme) (see Chant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 2), even if seven out of the 10 ® rm s claim to pay SSS for their probationary and casual workers as well as their permanent employees. As it is, there are so many shortcom ings w ith SSS (low payments, tardy delivery of bene® ts and so on) that as m any as 60% of M EPZ em ployers provide additional (private) medical and accident insurance. Other com m on èxtras’ include free or subsidised meals (in 90% of ® rm s), emergency loan systems which allow people to borrow at very low rates of interest (50% ) and workers’ credit co-ope ratives which, again, offer low interest loans (50% ). Some com panies also provide the services of a com pany doctor, free uniform s, cakes on employees’ birthdays, and incentive schem es such as `M odel E mployee of the M on th’ where winners receive cash prizes or household goods such as electrical appliances {20}. W hile a com bination of these is provided by all ® rms, the British garm ent factory and the three Japanese electronics com panies offer the most com prehensive range of statutory and additional bene® ts, whereas the Filipino garm ent ® rm provides only the bare minim um (see below). C onditions of W ork in M E P Z F acto ries

In spite of the relatively generous pay and bene® ts systems am ong ® rms in Mactan, it is also im portant to stress that working conditions in the factories are often far from congenial. Problems revolve around the strict nature of daily work routines and the setting of challenging production quotas to achieve maxim um productivity. In the m ajority of factories, for example, the 9-h our day is broken only by a 1-hou r lunch period. A lthough a number of ® rm s also allow a 15-m inute break in the morning and


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afternoon, m ost permit w orkers only 3± 5 minutes a day to use the toilets. M oreove r, if operatives are behind in reaching their quotas, they m ay be forced to continue w orking through their already lim ited rest periods (see also Santos, 1988; Yap, 1989; Zarate, 1990). This has obvious implications for workers, especially women, who often com plain of urinary tract infection s, kidney problems and m enstrual com plications. Further occupational hazards such as backache, eye strain, blurred vision and headaches are also encountered by female assembly workers as a result of sitting and concentrating for long periods, not to m ention com plaints such as chest infection s and skin irritations which arise from the handling and inhalation of chemical substances (see also Rosario, 1985; Pineda-O freneo, 1987; Y ap, 1989; Zarate, 1990; D onald, 1991; Eviota, 1992, p. 121). Notwithstanding these occupational hazards, women in Mactan seem to be better protecte d and provided for (at least in term s of payment of above m inimum wages, SSS af® liation and com pany fringe bene® ts) than in ® rm s outside the zone (see Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 4), although it is also im portant to note that the nationality of the com panies is signi® cant in determ ining their workers’ rights. Foreign ® rm s both within and outside M EPZ for example, appear more likely than their Filipino counterparts not only to adhere to statutory regulations relating to wages and bene® ts, but to provide additional perks for workers, both in respect of discretionary privileges (private medical insurance and so on), and in terms of providing proper rest areas and/or higher levels of cleanliness on the factory ¯ oor. Filipino ® rm s, alternatively, operate piece-rate systems wherever possible (usually leading to lower average earnings) and provide only skeletal bene® ts {21}. W ithin MEPZ itself, it is the Filipino garment ® rm in our sample which offers the least privileged package to its em ployees, and the Japanese and British ® rm s the best {22}. To some degree, this may call into question the idea that large-scale foreign investm ent in countries such as the Philippines is necessarily as exploitative as is often argued, at least from the perspective of workers themselves (see also Sklair, 1990, 1991, p. 99 et s eq . who raises the issue as to w hether TN Cs are guilty of higher levels of exploitation than exist on the part of indigenous entrepreneurs and institutions in given societies). W hile the aim here is not to enter the debate surrou nding advantages or disadvantages of foreign investm ent per se , it is signi® cant that such marked differences are evident between m ultinational and Filipino ® rm s in the V isayas (i.e. within M EPZ and in nearby Cebu City). One factor undoubtedly responsible for this is that foreign com panies are ® nancially able to provide better work ing con ditions for their em ployees: the low costs of labour in countries such as the Philippines, com bined w ith TNCs’ privileged access to m arkets, m eans that any concessions to workers are likely to m ake only minimal inroads into pro® ts. Besides this, the apparent `generosity’ of these com panies ensures high demand for jobs, which in turn acts to foster stability and com pliance am ong workers. TNCs also push their disadvantaged Filipino counterparts into an even tighter degree of com petition, meaning that the latter have little choice but to pay low er wages, invest very little in training, and give only minimal bene® ts and incentives to w orkers. One interesting outcom e, however, given the strong preference for female w orkers in the foreign ® rm s which dominate M EPZ {23}, is that wom en in Metro Cebu often have more privileged pay and working conditions than the predom inantly m ale workforc e in Filipino com panies in the locality, notw ithstanding that certain women in the zone are used as casual labour and the vast m ajority of fem ale workers are in low-ranking positions within the com panies. Indeed, even if women do have access to a relatively high-paid sector, the persistence of gender segregation within ® rm s is on e of m any factors w hich contrib ute to a rather mixed and often contra dictory set of implications for the lives of women workers in the zone.


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G end er Im p lica tions o f E xpo rt Processing Em p loy m ent in M a cta n

In attem pting to explore the wider ram i® cations for wom en of export manufacturing in M actan, we have seen that recruitm ent is highly fem inised, and frequently based on a range of dubious physiological and psychological stereotypes, such as women being more m anually dextrous, physically capable of sitting for long hours, being docile and m alleable and having a higher threshold than men for boring, repetitive work. Under these circumstances, wom en arguably have few opportunities for breaking out of the m ould im posed upon them by em ployers: indeed, there m ay be little choice but to conform uncom plainingly with these assumptions and with the status q uo , since in not doing, they would be out of work. This, in turn, would pose serious dif® culties in the light of women’s m ajor responsibilities for the ® nancial support of households in the Visayas at all stages of the life-cycle (see Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, chs. 3 and 7). Since the latter is in some senses at odds with certain of the gender stereotypes which underpin the recruitment and occupational placement of female workers, it is important to explore some of the contradictions w hich arise from the various disjunctures between assumption and practice, and to ask whether there is necessarily unilateral entrenchm ent of gender inequalities as a result of this work. One clear area of stasis arising from the stereotyped nature of female recruitm ent in M actan (and observed in m any other places), is women’s lim ited occupational m obility, both vertical and horizontal. Perceived as more suited to labour-intensive tasks, women are assigned m ainly to m anual assembly and ® nishing, and excluded from jobs in autom ated sections (see also Moghadam, 1993, p. 25; see also Rohin i, 1991, p. 262 on India). This is inherently discriminatory given that most work ers in Mactan (especially in Japanese and/or electronics com panies) are provided with introductory training. W omen’ s persistent association with labour-intensive work also m eans that when jobs within feminised departm ents become m echanised, these are likely to go to m en (see also O’ Connor, 1987, p. 264; R ohini, 1991, p. 262; H eng Leng & Ng Choon Sim, 1993). The furth er assumption that women are docile and passive puts them at a disadvantage in terms of vertical mobility, in that their presumed incapacity for leadership results in less likelihood of prom otion (see also Reardon, 1991b , p. 155 on India). This is undoubtedly reinforced by the fact that m ale managers are usually the on es to `create and implem ent employm ent strategies’ and, in the process of so doing, privilege m ale interests (Eviota, 1992, p. 115). O ccupational inertia tends to become entrenched over time as women rarely get prom oted, and so continue to perceive men as having exclusive rights to positions of authority. In a wider sense, this m ay reinforce the idea that women should defer to men in the hom e, continue to regard them selves as secondary workers, allocate their wages in accordance with m ale dictat, and avoid asserting them selves as individuals independent of husbands or fathers {24}. As such, patriarchal authority and existing gender roles may not only remain in place, but even intensify (see Elson & Pearson, 1981, pp. 101± 104; Taylor & Turton , 1988, pp. 145± 146; W ard, 1990, p. 12; Eviota, 1992, pp. 124± 125; also Humphrey, 1985). Another implication of w omen’ s concentration in low-level assembly work is that they are unlikely to learn new skills since most tasks are extrem ely routine and require little training. M oreover, the highly specialised nature of operations (especially in electronics factories) means that work experience is not readily transferable to other jobs or incom e-generating activities (see also Pineda-O freneo, 1987, p. 96; Eviota, 1992, p. 121). Coupled w ith the fact that most workers are on ly high school graduates (and likely to remain that way since punishing production schedules do not allow them to pursue


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further education at night school), options for other, perhaps more ful® lling, careers outside the zone are inevitably lim ited, notw ithstanding the possibility that women’s em ploym ent m ay facilitate the accumulation of capital with which to pursue further education, retraining or, indeed, to set-up a small business at a later stage {25}. Having said this, in a situation where women have few possibilities for internal career prom otion, are con® ned to perform ing exhausting and repetitive tasks all day, and may suffer debilitating medical com plaints, initiative and enterprise are likely to be suppressed. Time constraints arising from long w orking hours (especially where people do regular overtim e) may also leave women with little space to re¯ ect on their position or to form ulate any positive plans for their future. In the light of daily drudgery on the assembly line, women’ s only thoughts may be focused on the receipt of a salary at the end of the week. The cruel irony is that while their w age is a potential passport to greater econom ic (and personal) autonom y, there m ay be little time to spend it and/or use it for their ow n bene® t, especially given the demands likely to be made upon them by their own households and/or natal kin (see Chant & M cIlwaine, 1995, chs. 3, 4 and 7). On a m ore positive note, however, it cannot be denied that jobs in M actan are relatively privileged in a conte xt of limited alternatives (see also A rmstrong & M cGee, 1985, p. 211; Foo & Lim, 1989, pp. 213± 214; Sklair, 1991, pp. 96± 98; W olf, 1990, p. 52). W omen in the zone earn at least the legal m inimum wage (usually more), receive substantial bene® ts over and above those required by law, and m ay be in a better position than many of their m ale (and female) counterparts in other industries in the locality, not to mention oth er sectors of em ploym ent. Even if women’s scope to capitalise on this is held in check by their domestic situations, w ith m ost being in a position of having to support natal kin, their own dependants, and som etimes, husbands as well (see for exam ple, Eviota, 1992, p. 123; Chant, 1995; Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 3), certain shifts are in evidence. For exam ple, export m anufacturing em ploym ent in M actan seems to be providing som e opportunity for young women to delay marriage and childbirth. A mong single female w orkers, for exam ple (see Note 2), projected age at m arriage (around 25 years) is older than that of their peers in the w ider population in the locality (see N ote 6, also Chant & M cIlwaine, 1995, chs. 3, 4 and 7). On one hand, this is attributed to the fact that w hen women are working so hard they do not have the time to m eet m en (see also Pineda-O freneo, 1988; Eviota, 1992, p. 121) {26}, but more usually it is because wom en want to save money for future studies or business ventures, and regard this as easier to do prior to wedlock, and especially childbirth. The latter is interesting, ® rst, in so far as it indicates that women have hopes of furthering their profession al lives; second, that the m oney they are presently earning is suf® cient to m ake personal savings and, third, that they are not perhaps subject to the same degree of pressure as m any of their counterparts outside the zone to marry young and have children early. This third point could stem from two main factors: ® rst, that as long as wom en rem ain single, parents can expect to receive a signi® cant share of their wages (often up to 50% ); in this light, they are perhaps unlikely to encourage daughters to m arry and have children when a reduction in their ow n living standards could result. Second, as has been noted elsewhere, female earners m ay be in the position of having greater control over their ow n lives (see also Foo & Lim , 1989; Safa, 1990, 1993). Although these two factors are often hard to disentangle, the evidence w ould suggest that the latter is the more applicable to women in M actan. This, in turn, may relate to another observation arising from our interviews with wom en that signals som e kind of change in the sphere of hom e, family and personal circum stances, namely that m arriage and childbirth do not seem to interrupt their



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em ploym ent: whereas non-zon e workers tend to take breaks of up to a year follow ing the birth of children, w om en in Mactan take only their statutory maternity leave (60 days), indicating some prioritisation of em ploym ent in their range of activities as wives and m others. Moreover, in order to con tinue w orking, changes often have to be instigated in respect of labour in the hom e. These mainly include the delegation of child care to outside parties (often kin, but sometimes paid helpers as well), or reallocation of duties to husbands and/or relatives w ho become incorporated within households as a means of alleviating the responsibilities of working women (see also M iralao, 1984). Beyond this, zone workers usually enjoy greater authority over the allocation of household incom e than other w om en, partly because their w age is often larger than that of their spouses (see Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, chs. 4 and 7). A lthough the above might represent relatively m arginal gains, they could sow seeds for future changes, prim arily in the form of greater acknow ledgement of w om en’ s m ajor role in the generation of household incom e, and in the more general or institutionalised pattern of dispersing domestic and child care responsibilities to a greater num ber of people within and outside the hom e (see also Heyzer, 1986, p. 110; W olf, 1991, p. 141; Safa, 1993) {27}. Besides this, the grow ing presence of married w om en with children in M actan’s labour force could give rise to certain m odi® cations in the assumptions, biases and recruitm ent practices of m ale em ployers w ho have historically linked older wom en with a predom inantly dom estic role, notw ithstanding that fem ale exploitability is likely to remain high on their agendas. Having pointed up certain changes w ith which women’ s involvement in export m anufacturing in Mactan seem to be associated, and recognising that these are arguably rather m inor thus far, it is also im portant to bear in mind that com petition from other peripheral countries, a changing con® guration of the world market throu gh the consolidation of new and pre-existing trading blocs such as NAFTA (North A merican Free Trade Agreement) and the European Comm unity, and increased prospects of autom ation (and cheaper production) within m ore advanced econom ies (see Pearson , 1986, p. 68; O’ Conn or, 1987, pp. 258± 260; D icken, 1990, p. 221; Eviota, 1992, p. 125; Chant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 2) {28}, cast the question of future tendencies in a decidedly uncertain light. Indeed, the inherent vulnerability of multinational export manufacturing m eans that any gains made by Filipino wom en as a result of the work provided by this sector m ay be wiped out at any point. In this event, w om en’ s options for alternative em ploym ent may be at best, severely limited, or at w orst, equally or m ore exploitative. C o ntinuity o r C ha nge in the Fem in isa tion o f La bo ur in E xp ort P rocessing M a nufacture? C o nclusio ns a nd S uggestions for Fu ture R esea rch

Given the overall tendency for the ® ndings of this study to corre spond w ith those in other places, especially in respect of continued fem ale preponderance in export manufacturing and the often contra dictory outcom es for wom en’s lives (particularly in relation to the disparities betw een ongoing subordination in the workplace and their slightly greater power within the hom e) (see Lim , 1983; Salaff, 1990; Safa, 1990, 1993), a num ber of observations m erit attention and may be helpful in future analyses. Two aspects of recruitm ent practices in Mactan which seem to deviate quite considerably from dom inant patterns elsewhere and w hich, for example raise important questions are ® rst, a desire on the part of employers to foster loyalty am ong their workers (rather than encouraging high labour turnover) and, second, the apparent shift tow ards an acceptance of married em ployees as opposed to a strict preference for single w omen. These interrelated ® ndings suggest that export processing (in M actan, at least) might be


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m oving away from the inherently unstable pattern of `runaway shops’ (Safa, 1981), towards one re¯ ecting a greater degree of perm anency. H ow ever, caution m ust be exercised in that with the encouragement of loyalty and lon g-term com m itm ent among work ers in Mactan may be highly functional to production, this does not necessarily m ean that em ployers have similar com mitment to their workers, and factories may well shut dow n if m ore attractive operational advantages emerge elsewhere. Besides this, the apparent trend in Mactan towards greater stability in in-hou se industrial production seems to be at odds w ith a wider, global tendency for more ¯ exible methods involving increased recourse to subcontra cted and/or casualised labour (see for example, Joekes, 1987, pp. 99± 100; Standing, 1989; W ilson, 1992; M oghadam , 1994, p. 106). Indeed, given the tendency of com panies in m any parts of the Philippines (including non-zon e export manufacturing ® rms in Cebu) to farm out production to hom e-based workers, and/or to eschew permanence among factory operatives (see Chant & McIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4), M actan would seem to present us with a somewhat contra dictory case. This calls, ® rst, for longitudinal research in order to establish whether the cultivation of worker loyalty and endurance is merely a strategy to exact greater productivity or is a genuine re¯ ection of ® rm s’ intentions to stay in the zone. Second, it underscores the need for wider com parative research to identify whether this is an isolated case or if EPZs in other developing countries are undergoing similar changes. For example, it could be that the continued low costs of producing in the Philippines mean that com panies are likelier to settle for longer here (and in other `cheap’ locations such as Indon esia, Thailand and Sri Lanka), than in places where labour has becom e more expensive (South Korea, M alaysia, parts of Latin Am erica and so on). Beyon d this, given signi® cant differences among ® rms with different national origins, the preponderance of Japanese ® rm s in M actan (together with the latter’ s geographical proxim ity to this country), may also account for the apparently distinctive practice of fostering stability among workers {29}. W hether or not this practice is a generalised phenom enon, if it is genuine in M actan then it also calls for further analysis of the ways in w hich it will affect wom en. O n the one hand, the creation of long-term em ploym ent for women may not only give rise to m ore substantial improvem ents in their status in the hom e (see earlier), but also in the work place: as a perm anent labour force, wom en m ay increasingly be viewed as indispensable and, as a result, afforded greater scope to exercise demands for better pay, health conditions, political representation and so on. Further com parative research would not only be helpful in identifying whether the creation of long-term employm ent for wom en in EPZs is actually taking place in other conte xts, therefore, but also in assessing the im plications for fem ale workers in respect of their potential for harnessing new-found perm anency in em ploym ent as a base from which to exercise greater control over their working lives as w ell as in their domestic environments. At the same time, it is also im portant to recognise that the increased use of subcontra cted fem ale labour outside the zones m ay not only w eaken the bargaining pow er of in-house employees, but serve to entrench gender inequalities to the extent that the person al gains made by wom en factory workers are blocked from extending into the w ider sphere of society and econom y. It is thus also necessary to examine the rise in women’s waged employm ent against a background of casualisation and inform alisation of econom ic activity am ong the population in general. W ithin this general set of objectives, greater attention to the differences in labour practices between ® rms on account of nationality and product is also desirable. The evidence from Mactan, for exam ple, shows that com pared with US and Filipino com panies especially, Japanese ® rms tend not only to enforce more exacting standards



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of recruitment, but to adhere more strictly to patriarchal working practices and gender segregation in the workplace, even if they offer greater econom ic rewards than other ® rms. Gender-typing may be less apparent in US and Filipino com panies, for example, but pay and workin g conditions are inferior. In addition to exploring w hy these differences exist (and if the same differences apply among ® rms of the same origin in other places), it is interesting to consider their potentially varied im pacts on w omen. For example, even if occupational placement is m ore trenchantly gender-stereotyped in some ® rms than others, can higher econom ic rewards mean m ore signi® cant changes for wom en in the hom e than w hen earnings are lower? In oth er words, aside from evaluating the situations of women in ® rm s of different national origin, questions of the relative in¯ uence of occupational stereotyping against the power to be had from higher wages m ay yield useful ® ndings for research into the impacts of work on wom en’ s lives and status (see also Faulkner & Lawson, 1991; Safa, 1993; M oghadam, 1994; Chant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 7). Distinctions between com panies on grounds of product are also likely to be relevant insofar as in Mactan, as elsewhere, gender segregation (and, to som e degree, masculinisation) seems to be greater in electronics factories (which m ake use of a wide range of autom ated production techniques), than in garment ® rms where sewing operations are less intensively mechanised. W hile the association of particular products with particular production systems are by no means ® xed through tim e or across space (Pearson, 1986, p. 68), there would certainly appear to be a persistent link with male labour utilisation and high technolog y. This is not only applicable to M actan but, as discussed earlier, has frequently been observed in other places as well. The key questions raised by these issues include the need for analysis of the current and potential prospects of autom ation in different products, and of the w ays in which this m ay change women’ s relationships with different types of export processing em ployment. It is also necessary here to take into account the geographical locations in which high-technolog y export m anufacturing is likely to occur. W e saw at the start of this paper, for exam ple, that the production of technolog y-intensive item s such as car parts and com puters is thus far occurring mainly in the higher w age econom ies of Latin Am erica and South-east Asia. T his has also been associated w ith a rise in m ale labour w hich bodes ominously not only for women in the countries concerned, but also for their counterparts in poorer nations whose prospects of breaking out of routinised manual assembly w ork are bleak if the low est cost production sites rem ain those in which feminisation and labour intensity continue to go hand in hand. W hile some changes in patterns of female employm ent seem apparent in M actan, it is clear from the above that little certainty surroun ds the futures of the w omen involved. The dif® culties of projecting their possible futures are, in turn, hampered by the problems of m on itoring the global changes in production and investment which so obviously impact upon the character and sustainability of the operations which employ them. W hile women themselves might be gaining m inor achievem ents from their current positions, mainly at the micro-level of personal and fam ily life and in respect of convin cing employers that they are just as suitable for work as married women with children as they are as single person s, it is probably true to say that their overall status in their ow n society, not to m ention at an international level, remains determined by continuity in both patriarchal relations and in capitalist exploitation. Elizabeth Eviota’ s (1992, p. 123) assertion that Filipino women may have experienced an expansion in the range of their productive work as a result of export processing but that this, at the same time, `has led to their subordination to a global market and a male-dominated hierarchy

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of m anagement’ is undoubtedly applicable to other poor countries as well. This is not to suggest, however, that research on the diversity of export manufacturing operations and their differentiated outcom es for wom en around the w orld is irrelevant. On the contrary, greater awareness of these differences is likely to give rise to deeper understanding of the ways in w hich the gains made by one group of people m ay be another’ s loss. C orresp ondence : Sylvia Chant, Departm ent of Geography, Lon don School of Econom ics, H oughton Street, London W C2A 2AE, UK .


NO TES {1} This paper form s part of a w ider project entitled `G ender, Developm ent an d Pov erty in the Philippine Visayas’ funded by the Econom ic and Soc ial Researc h C ouncil (ESR C ) (A w ard N o. R 0002340 20) ov er the period 1993± 94. The ESR C also m ade an im portan t contribution to ® nancing a pilot study (N ov em ber 1991± A pril 1992) entitled `W om en, W ork and U rban Househ olds in the Philippines’ (A ward N o. R0002332 91), for which grants w ere also receiv ed from the British Academ y, N uf® eld F ou ndation and the Suntory-T oy ota International C enter for Econom ics and R elated Disciplines. G ratefu l acknowled gem ent is m ad e to these organ isations for their roles in assisting the researc h. A n earlier version of this paper w as given at the panel `N egotiating Gender in the Philippines’ , Europ ean C onference on Philippine Studies, School of O rien tal an d African Studies, U niversity of L on don, 13± 15 A pril 1994. The authors are grateful for the help ful comm ents provid ed by participants in this session . {2} Fieldw ork in M actan consisted of in-depth interviews with person nel man agers in 10 ® rm s (four electronics fac tories, four garm ents ® rm s, one ® rm produc ing wood veneer, and one m anufacturing clasp s for jewelleryÐ see T ab le I). Interview s w ere also held w ith 12 w ork ers in the zone, with the M actan Export Processing Zone A uthority (M EPZA ), and with various region al bran ches of national labour organ isations. Special thanks are due to Lisa T arectaran and C arlos Allon es of K M U Visayas and Am i G arcia and Rodrigo N avarro of the N ational F ederation of Lab ou r for facilitating contacts w ith workers, and to Rogelio B alajadia, Zone M anager of M EPZA an d Beng Lao, prom otions of® cer of M EPZ A for arranging interview s in ® rm s (see also N ote 6). {3} W ithin this particular classi® cation of South-east Asia, Dicken (1990) includes Bu rm a, K am puchea, Indonesia, Laos, M alaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand , V ietnam and B runei. {4} Leslie Sklair (1990, p. 11) points out m ore gen erally that the label èxp ort processing zones’ is becom ing increasingly dated as greater num bers of zon es arou nd the w orld have begun to engage in man ufacturing as w ell as pure assem bly activities (see also W ilson , 1992, p. 25). {5} Interview with H ilda Sum ab at, Division C hief, C orporate Planning, EPZ A, M anila, M arch 1993. {6} As part of the w ider project on G ender, Developm ent an d Poverty in the Visayas (see N otes 1 an d 2), a questionnaire su rvey was carried out with 80 househo lds in a low -incom e neigh bou rhood in Lapu -Lapu C ity (Pusok) and 100 househ old s in a low-in com e neighbourh ood in C ebu (R ubberw orld). The questionnaire su rvey explore d issues of em ploym ent and earn ings, along w ith other socio-econom ic and demograph ic charac teristics su ch as househ old structure, m igration , ed ucation and exp enditure (see C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 3 an d appen dix). Thanks are due to T essie Sato, Em ma G alv ez an d G ing-G ing U y for help with these su rveys. {7} Low er levels of schooling am on g garm ents w ork ers m ay also relate to the fact that factories are prepared to take on older wom en w ho may not have had the sam e edu cational op portunities as their you nger counterparts. {8} Despite the fact that trade unionism is osten sibly encourage d by the Philippine state (see A rticle 211 of the Philippine Labour C od eÐ N olledo, 1992, p. 74), unions are non-existent in M EPZ, mainly because of the efforts of the M EPZA to attract foreign investors (B ucoy, 1993, p. 10). Indeed , the few attempts to establish unions in the zone hav e alw ays been voted dow n at the elec tion stage. According to loc al labour rep resen tatives, this has arisen from w orkers’ reluctance to be identi® ed as `troub lem akers’ by m anagement and M EPZA , an d/or to risk losing their jobs. W orkers hav e also been seduced by various ìncentives’ (such as social gatherin gs, free entertainment or add itional fringe bene® ts) provid ed by man agem ent in the run-up to elections (see also B ucoy, 1993; B allescas, 1993, pp. 5± 6 and T iukinhoy & R em edio, 1992 for more detailed ac counts of unionism and attem pted unionism in the M EPZ). {9} In one sen se this is not surpris ing since A rticle 136 of the L ab ou r C ode states: ìt shall be unlaw ful for an em ploy er to require as a condition of em ploym ent or con tinuation of em ploym ent that a w om an


{10}


{11}

{12}

{13}

{14}

{15}

{16}

{17}

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em ployee shall not get m arried, or to stipulate expressly or tacitly that upon getting married a w om an em ployee shall be deem ed resign ed’ (N olled o, 1992, p. 49). A study dating from the early 1980s in the B ataan Export Processin g Zone by Im eld a Zosa-Fe ranil (1984) indicates that although single w om en were by far the m ajority w orkforc e in the zon e, there were sign i® cant numbers of m arried op eratives as w ell. T his suggest s that M actan may not be unique am ong EPZs w ithin the Philippines. The charac ter of Japanese m an ufacturing operation s ab road m ay well vary from on e place to another, how ever. In the M exican border area, for exam ple, K enney & F lorida (1994, p. 35) note that m ost Japanese m aquilad ora plants are characterised by high lev els of labour turnover (w ith a core of 10± 15% of w orkers staying perm anently being deem ed acceptable by m anagers). B eyon d this, K enney & Florida also observe that, w ith the exception of technicians and m an agers w ho receive training (often in Japan), `Jap anese ® rm s are man agin g their operation s in a way that resem bles their usage of tem porary and part-tim e workers in Jap an’. This obv iously represen ts a direct contrast to the situation in M actan. In the authors survey of 12 w orkers in M EPZ factories, three-q uarters (9) were m igrants, m ainly from other areas in the C entral Visayas, (see C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). M oreover , our hou seh old surv ey in Pusok, Lapu-Lap u reveale d that on ly a sm all m inority of residents w ere native to the locality (9% of wom en an d 18% of men) (C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 3). A b arangay is the sm allest ad ministrative unit in the Philippines, usually consisting of arou nd 1000 househ old s and equivalent to an enum eration area in the national census. A b arangay captain is the elected leader and main represe ntative of the com m unity, and is often called upon to supply referen ces for residents seeking em ploym ent. In the case of w orkers from Lap u-L ap u, the M ayor of the city is also ask ed to vouch for the character of potential rec ruits. The m ost com mon test is the peg and board dexterity/colour test w hich involves m atching pegs of four different colours with 30 holes in a board w ithin a set tim e of 2± 3 m inutes. O ther tests include stringing seq uins on to nylon thread w hereby ap plicants are given 200 seq uins and in 3 m inutes hav e to string at least 24 seq uins with their righ t hand and 17 with their left. Sewing tests usually involve a half-hour stint on a m achine doing complicated piping or dif® cult stitches. The m ajority of companies carry out on e or more tests, w ith the U S electronics ® rm conducting the most, including a 90-m inute written IQ and English test, a dexterity and colour-blindness test, as well as a complete physical exam ination. An em ployer surv ey was also conducted w ith 12 exp ort man ufacturing ® rm s in nearb y C ebu C ity; these were predom inantly engaged in the produc tion of rattan, w icker an d buri furn iture and handicrafts, and fash ion ac cessories. A lthough there are certain similarities in term s of entry requ irem ents, particularly w ith resp ect to youth, the system of recru itm ent is considerably m ore relaxed . W ork-rela ted sk ills are usu ally preferre d over educational levels, and m arital status is rarely deem ed im portan t. In ad dition, the bureaucratic procedures requ ired before app ointm ent are gen erally restric ted to the provision of a medical certi® cate and b arangay cap tain clearan ce. Interestingly , how ev er, rec ruitm ent policies tend to be m ore stringen t am ong foreign -, rather than nationally-ow ned ® rm s, which ties in with the stricter screen ing procedures foun d am on g com panies in M EPZ (see C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). O ne reason for this distinction m ay ow e to the fact that higher standards are req uired in bran ch plants working to the exacting controls im posed by overseas paren t com panies. Another is that dem and for w ork in foreign ® rm s is gen erally higher as a resu lt of their better wages and fringe bene® ts. This question of fam ily resp on sibilities is, in ou r opinion, better conceived in terms of how the nature of wom en’s resp on sibilities w ithin the hou seh old m ight change over the life-cycle, but not necessarily their degree (see C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). This relates to Ruth Pearson ’s (1986, p. 71) ob serv ations ab ou t wom en workers in A sian export m anufac turing, where em ploy ers may `select those w orkers w ho on the on e hand do not have a sign i® cant role in reprodu ction which m ight interfere w ith their availability and produc tivity in production, but on the other hand hav e a sign i® cant role in the subsistence and survival of the fam ilies in which they are daughters rather than w ives or m others’ (Pearson’ s). O nly three of the 10 ® rm s work an 8-h ou r day, while the rest w ork 9 hours. G iven that wages are paid on a daily rate, this is ob viously a means of getting em ploy ees to w ork lon ger for less pay . A 9-h our day also breach es regu lations set ou t in the L ab or C ode (Article 83) w hich states that `the norm al hou rs of work of an y em ployee shall not exceed eigh t in a day ’ (N olledo, 1992, p. 28). Interestingly, the L ab or C ode also avoid s stating the rec om m ended num ber of hours per w eek , prob ab ly in ord er to provide a loop hole for enterprises w hose w orkers face exploitative prac tices. M ore speci® cally , despite the IL O ’s 1962 rec om m endation that norm al w orking hours shou ld not exceed 40 per week (® ve 8-hour day s), all ® rm s in M actan work a m inim um of 48 hou rs, and usually 54 (see A ddison & Dem ery , 1988, pp. 378± 379). Having said this, the Philippine state does not, like m any other countries with EPZs, im pose a differen tial minimum wage rate for m en and w om en (see Standing, 1989, p. 1082 who points out that as of 1988,

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{19}

{20}

{21}

{22}

{23}

{24}

{25}

{26}

{27}

{28}

S . C hant & C . M cI lw aine the follow ing countries with export processing operation s had not rati® ed the ILO ’ s Equal R em uneration C on vention N o. 100: H ong K on g, the Rep ublic of K orea, M alay sia, Singapore, Sri Lank a and Thailan d). Hourly overtim e rates on w eekdays (M on day to Saturday) work out at an extra P26 (US$ 1) and P31.5 (US$ 1.2) on S undays (see N olled o, 1992, pp. 28± 29). The am ount of overtime varies greatly , w ith w ork ers in som e ® rm s doing 2± 3 hou rs extra every day, and others on ly 2± 3 ad ditional hou rs per mon th. This also raises the issue of how far the Philippine state intervenes to ensure that foreign com panies do not violate the term s of ap pren ticeship contracts, let alon e to reduc e lev els of gen der bias in the composition of prob ationary work ers. The latter is, to som e degree, highlighted by Article 131 of the Lab or C ode w here protective legislation for w om en (for exam ple, the prohibition of night w ork) excludes types of em ploym ent `w here the nature of work requires the m anual skill and dexterity of wom an w orker (sic) an d the sam e cannot be perform ed w ith equ al pro® ciency by male w orker (sic)’ (N olled o, 1992, p. 47). This m ean s that all man ual assem bly positions can technically be occupied by wom en, w hich has the unfortu nate outcome of m ean ing that w om en are also likely to be the bulk of underp aid ap prentices (see also N ote 20). O ne signi® cant om ission from this list of bene® ts, esp ecially in the light of the high prop ortion of fem ale workers, m any of w hom are m arried w ith children, is the provision of creÃ che facilities. H ow ev er, since Article 132 of the Philippine Lab or C od e fails to spell out the precise con ditions under which em ployers should provide child care in factories (see N olled o, 1992, p. 47), and the Philippine state is on ly likely to enforce the bare minimum of restrictions on foreign com panies, it is perh ap s no surp rise that little cogn isan ce is taken of wom ens need s. In add ition, a large pool of fem ale labour on ® rm w aiting lists m eans that m others are unlikely to be particularly vocal in dem anding this kind of support. In our survey of ® rm s in C eb u C ity, average wages w ere low er than in M EPZ (P671 {U S$25.8 }), although foreign ® rm s pay up to P1022 (U S$40.9) on a ® xed salary system, com pared with on ly P650 (US$ 25) in Filipino ® rm s using piece rates (C hant & M cIlw aine, 1995, ch. 4). In addition , bene® t systems are m uch less w idespread am on g indigenou s ® rm s w ho often violate legal requirem ents su ch as social security coverag e, and rarely prov ide extra privileges. F oreign ® rm s, on the other hand, offer w orking conditions sim ilar to those in M EPZ (C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). In their study of exp ort m anufac turing w orkers in Sou th-east A sia, Foo & L im (1989, p. 216) also foun d that foreign com panies tend to offer better pay, bene® ts and con ditions to w orkers, notw ithstanding that multination als from dev eloping (as opp osed to develop ed ) cou ntries are likely to be m ore akin to loc ally-owned ® rm s (Foo & Lim , 1989, p. 231). This latter point does not seem to apply in M actan, how ever, as the T aiwanese ® rm in ou r survey gives broad ly sim ilar bene® ts to the other foreign ® rm s. See also Ad dison & Dem ery (1988), Lim (1983) and Sen & G rown (1987, ch. 9) on higher wages and better conditions in foreign -, as op posed to dom estically-ow ned fac tories. It is also interesting to note that in ou r survey of export m anufacturing in C eb u C ity, wom en rep resen t on ly 41% of w orkers in F ilipino companies, but as m any as 73% in foreign -own ed an d foreign ± local ventures (see C hant & M cIlwaine, 1995, ch. 4). Low w ages, am ongst other things, m ay exac erb ate these patterns. A ihw a O ng (1987, p. 198), for exam ple, notes of the Telok Free Trade Zon e in K uala Lan gat, M alaysia that: Àlthou gh ru ral wom en sought in fac tory em ploym ent a source of indep endent w ealth, in practice their low w ages, the unav oidable claims of their fam ilies, and insecurity of em ploym ent did not provid e a suf® cient basis for econom ic independence’ . O ng’ s w ork on the Telok F ree Trade Zone also ® nds that som e w om en work ers view their wages as a means of im proving their technical quali® cations to allow them to com pete for better jobs (O ng, 1987, p. 197). This seem s to con trast w ith the situation of fem ale factory workers in H on g K on g an d Taiw an, w ho have been observe d to enjoy greater freedom , m ore active social lives an d hence greater op portunity to com e into contact w ith the op posite sex as a result of em ploym ent (see Salaff, 1990, pp. 126± 127; also Arm strong & M cGee, 1985, p. 211; B uang, 1993, p. 206 et seq ; O ng, 1987, p. 200 et seq . on M alay factory wom en). A broad-ra nging study of the im pacts of w om en’ s em ploym ent on househ old m an agem ent in three regions of the Philippines (C agayan Valley, the C entral Visayas an d Southern M indanao) by Virginia M iralao (1984), show ed that although there w ere relatively m inor changes in househo ld decision-m ak ing and dom estic labou r organ isation, shifts were still in evidence, and that these rep resen ted som e departure from traditional gend er roles. In the sp eci® c case of the Philippines, threats arise from the fac t that neighbou ring countries such as Indonesia, T hailand and V ietnam are becom ing increasin gly attractive to foreign investors in search of cheap lab ou r. M ore genera lly, prospects for industrial relocation to Third W orld cou ntries seem to be stem med, at least in part, by a tendency for new investm ent in the perip heral states, of industrial Europe


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(Pearso n, 1986, p. 68). T he break-u p of the form er U SSR an d the Eastern B loc is also likely to have im plications for changing patterns of m ultinational investm ent. {29} It is conceivable that M actan represe nts an extended `fron tier’ for Japan in the w ay that the north ern border of M exico has trad itionally been for the U SA, w ith the corresp on ding likelihood that Japanese companies may use the islan d for a m ajor share of its lon g-term off-sho re investm ent. In turn, it is interesting to note that exp ort processing plants in m ore distant locations from Japan, su ch as the M exico± U SA border, where electronics ® rm s in particular are m ainly involv ed in assem bly rather than complete prod uction (an d are possibly less perm anent investments), are much less concerned w ith labour forc e stability an d, as m entioned earlier (N ote 11), do not treat the bulk of their w ork ers in the sam e man ner as lon g-term em ployees in Japan (see K enney & Florida, 1994).

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The case of the Mactan Export Processing Zone

The case of the Mactan Export Processing Zone

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