General Labour Code (Act No. 2 of 1986) , 5 April 1986. [Selected provisions
Annual Review of Population Law 16: 86 481-2
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12344565 Document Number: 383541
Guinea-Bissau's General Labor Code, Act No. 2 of 1986, requires that employers adopt non-discriminatory procedures in dealing with their employees, disallowing discrimination based on gender, race, national origin, religion, political ideology or inclination, or on whether or not an employee is affiliated to a worker's union. Women are guaranteed equality with men in work opportunity and employment treatment; they are assured access to any type of job, profession, or position which does not pose any potential or actual threat to their genetic functioning. Additional legislation shall establish the conditions and prohibitions for contracting woman for heavy labor, for jobs performed under insalubrious conditions, for underground work, and for other types of jobs which might endanger a woman's genetic functioning. Job offers must not discriminate, unless the restrictions or specifications are essential to the nature of the job, rendering the job qualitatively differentiable when performed by a man or a woman. The employer must ensure that female workers have the same job opportunity and treatment for professional training and career development. Different specific job categories may not be created for men and women if a woman's salary is inferior to that of a man performing equivalent work in a corresponding professional category. Protection during pregnancy and delivery guarantees a woman the right to decline medically inadvisable tasks without loss of wages; to decline overtime work; to be absent from work when necessary for maternal medical care without loss of wages; to interrupt daily work to nurse her children for 1 hour or 2 for half-hour periods for up to 1 year without the loss of wages. Every female employee has the right to 60 days pregnancy and maternity leave, without loss of wages, for whatever clinical type of delivery, including for still births and for births where the infant died shortly thereafter.