Tripartite agreement signed to fight COVID 19

Ethiopia launches the first kind of tripartite agreement between the government, employers and employees, of work force protocol to encompasses measures taken to fight against the pandemic virus Covid 19 by employers, employees and safety committees.
“Even if reducing the impact of Covid 19 is the top priority of the government, the disease can have a negative impact on the economic growth and its potential impact on labor relations is huge,” said Ergego Tesfaye, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
Workplace Response Protocol is to be implemented by actors is prepared according to the International Labor Organization guideline for response to crisis management when work is under attack by natural and man-made disasters. The protocol was signed between three parties’ Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Confederation of Labor and Confederation of Trade Unions.
The Covid 19 epidemic, despite the fact that the country’s anti-corona movement is being carried out by industry and service providers, the disease can have a negative impact on the economic growth and its potential impact on labor relations is huge. The protocol is carefully researched and believed that it can foster a persuasive and sustainable industrial peace. The protocol advises taking legal and administrative action.
The Protocol also urge basic workplace protection strategies to be implemented by employers, employees and safety committee that includes precautions to be taken. The ability to respond to crisis in organizations varies from organization to organization and also from sector to sector and as a result, solutions not only derive from the organizations, but also the step-by-step recommendations are prescribed by the protocol.
The launching of the protocol, which was attended by the leaders was to provide the workers and employees to prevent and control the outbreak of the Covid 19 epidemic.
COVID 19 is threatening the health and the livelihoods of workers and employers globally. As stated on the protocol, policy responses should focus on two immediate goals, health protection measures and economic support on both the demand and supply side.
First, workers and employers and their families should be protected from the health risks of COVID 19. Protective measures at the workplace and across communities should be introduced and strengthened, requiring large-scale public support and investment. Second, timely, large-scale and coordinated policy efforts should be taken to provide employment and income support and to stimulate the economy and labor demand.
As stated on the ILO guideline protocol, such kind of measures not only cushion enterprises and workers against immediate employment and income losses, but also help prevent a chain of supply shocks such as losses in workers’ productivity capacities and demand shocks as suppressing consumption among workers and their families that could lead to a prolonged economic recession.
Employment retention schemes, including short-time work arrangements partial unemployment benefits and other time-bound support for enterprises, such as wage subsidies and temporary cuts to payroll tax exemptions from social security contributions provision of paid leave and extension of existing entitlements to workers, and training leave, grants and related schemes; time-bound financial tax relief and income smoothing measures to support business continuity, especially MSMEs and the self-employed subsidies, credit mediation or re-financing to overcome liquidity constraints.