CEDAW/C/PHI/Q/6/Add.1 Employment 17. According to the report, a bill to establish a Civil Service Code was proposed in 2001 to codify existing laws on civil service and provisions on maternity leave for unmarried women, paternity leave, parental leave for single parents, flexible working hours and a provision for a disciplinary action on the grounds of sexual harassment (para. 383). Kindly provide information on whether the pending bill has been adopted, and if so, assess adherence in practice to this legislation and any remedies available to and used by women to ensure full implementation of such legislation. The Civil Service Code is pending at the 13th Congress as House Bill Nos. 81 and 798 and as Senate Bill Nos. 1045, 1142, 1974 and 2034. In the House of Representatives, it has gone through public hearing and technical working group meetings. The final version is now pending with the Committee on Appropriations. In the Senate, there is still no scheduled public hearing for the bills. On the other hand, despite the pending status of the bill, the Civil Service Commission has Memorandum Circular No. 8, s.2004 promulgated the Guidelines on the Grant of Parental Leave to Solo Parents. It allows for parental leave of seven (7) days in addition to existing leave privileges to allow the parent to personally attend to the needs of the child and perform other parental obligations. It also issued the Memorandum Circular No. 18. The report notes the implementation of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act in the late 1990s (para. 379) and states that the law is unclear as to which agency should monitor private sector observance of the law (para. 422). Please indicate what measures are in place for the effective enforcement and monitoring of this law in the private sector. Please also provide information of measures taken to solve the problem of women suffering from many forms of subtle and overt discrimination in hiring and promotion and through sexual harassment. In the absence of a monitoring agency for the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law in the private sector, the labor department require compliance to certain provisions of RA 7877 (the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act) in its Checklist for Self-Assessment on Compliance of Labor Standards. These include the posting/dissemination of RA 7877, creation of Committee on Decorum (CODI) and promulgation of company policy on sexual harassment. More recently, in a Cabinet meeting on March 28, 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directed the NCRFW to form a team composed of representatives from various concerned agencies to monitor the implementation of RA 7877 in the private sector. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), for its part, issued a memorandum to all companies in the ecozones to establish their own CODI in compliance with RA 7877. Trade unions have also actively initiated dialogues with union leaders and their employers about issues surrounding sexual harassment. The Philippine Overseas Employment Authority (POEA) ensures the protection of migrant workers through the following: 1. Standard employment contracts for women migrant workers such as performing artists and domestic workers, which stipulate principles of employment, standards of living adequate for health and well-being of the migrant worker, safe working conditions and a clean working 18