Palestine: Working women are victims of exploitation, injustice and extortion

The Center for Democracy and Workers Rights revealed that the percentage of Palestinian women aslabour force rose to 19.2%. In fact, 31% of them in 2017 were subjected to collective and individual arbitrarydismissal due to pregnancy, maternity leave, restructuring or loss. As a result, the percentage of abused women is 90%.

Forty-nine per cent of them were subjected to wage infringement, including the non-respect of the minimum wage, the delay for paying them or sometimes non-paying at all and wage discrimination between women and men. Thirty-nine per cent of Palestinian women workers were deprived from their religious and official holidays, as well as, weekly rests and other vacations. In addition, 28% of them were deprived of the end of service benefits.

The largest percentage of violations was in sewing, weaving, kindergartens, private schools, commercial centres and services sectors.

Moreover, the Palestinian official bodies and trade unions state that Palestinian women workers are exploited and harassed sexually, as well as, they are exploited because of their harsh living conditions and needs for a live.  However, these aspects are hidden because of the conservativementality of society and working women’s fear from the societys perspective and theirworries about their future careers, in light of the weakness of the state to confront this exploitation and these various violations.