Workers to get free condoms

More productive, less reproductive. Can workers become more productive on the job by practicing birth control?

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) believes so, and is hoping that pregnancies among its workers will be regulated.

Rene Soriano, ECOP president, said they have started distributing some P1.5 million worth of condoms and contraceptives to workers in their member companies.

"We are looking at 15 companies yearly, with a minimum budget of P1.5 million from donations from other institutes," he said.

ECOP is initially looking at eight companies to implement its project, he added.

Soriano said employers have observed that pregnancies among female workers result in a reduction of their production capacity.

ECOP is extending technical and financial assistance to its members by training clinical staff and human resources officers to provide family planning services to workers, he added.

Soriano said ECOP is also developing modules for reproductive health learning sessions for male workers, considering that men comprise 68 percent of the country’s workforce.

ECOP is set to undertake population development projects in the business sector to provide health services at the workplace, with support from the United Nations Population Fund, he added.

Soriano said ECOP and other business groups have decided to take the step as part of its "corporate responsibility" because the government lacks a comprehensive national policy on population management.

"Due to the absence of comprehensive national policy on population management, the situation is not getting better, (while) poverty and unemployment remained unmitigated," he said. — Mayen Jaymalin