Employers have some tough decisions to make amidst this Coronavirus pandemic 

 

Aggrey Nyondwa

The increased spread of the global pandemic COVID-19 has in shocking measures left the world order upside down, with every aspect of life in a quandary. Sport, entertainment, transport, business, all have been hit.

The COVID-19 outbreak has presented leaders and decision makers all over the world with the dilemmas of their lives, mostly political leaders and employers.

The vast responsibility of protecting their people, ensuring a continued life for them, and the need to keep their institutions afloat.

Hard decisions and calls have been made at different levels, closing schools, bans on public transport and bans on most kinds of social life.

All these have effect on work life and it has indeed left millions of employers in a state of sleeplessness, trying to figure out how to come out of this with some level of business progression.

When employers were entering into a contract with their employees, something like this was never foreseen.

It is a whole new territory that both parties have been caught in.

Both sides are trying to sort out their rights, entitlements, responsibilities and obligations to each other and their clients.

In Uganda, a few days ago the president announced that public transport had been suspended for 14 days, the president however didn’t explicitly ask work places to close.

This means a vast portion of the population still has to go to work.

The majority of them depend on public transport and it remains to be seen how these are going to make it to work, especially those who haven’t come to terms with their employers on how the situation could be handled.

Employers now have to start thinking of next steps.

The two biggest factors to look at are; staff safety and business continuity.

Some workplaces will definitely have to stay open because of the criticality of the services they offer to the public.

These might include health workers, security forces, some humanitarian workers, those working in water and

electricity production, groceries, and pharmacies.

There are a few others that might still be very important service providers to a big section of the public.

These include banks, restaurants, media and telecom companies.

Employers have to decide on which staff to stay, what to do to ensure that staff get to work and are safe, and also make sure that there is enough available man power and sufficient output.

The other dilemma however is, with all the restrictions and guidelines in place, the market is definitely going down but production has to continue because you are stuck with employees who need wages, and there are utilities to pay as well.

Laying off staff seems like the obvious option but according to the ministry of labour last week, all employers planning to lay off staff or force them on unpaid leave have to do this within the law and this means paying all

the terminal benefits, serve notices and so on.

A few options available to employers in this situation that might be within the law include calling for emergency leave for staff.

Most employees have an annual leave of about 2-4 weeks.

Since the year is just beginning, most staff haven’t taken their leave so the employer can ask all or a few staff that might not be needed to work in such a time, to take their annual leave.

Paying for this leave wouldn’t attract an extra cost because it was supposed to be paid leave anyway. Some employees might look at this as unfair, but it is a call made in an emergency situation and they ought to understand that.

Employees could also be asked to work by rotation method through working in shifts. This  would avoid instances where an employee (who is not on leave) sits home the whole month  and still expects to be paid a salary.

After asking the rest to go on leave, a few essential staff can stay and work in weekly shifts. This will save the employer from paying for a lot of redundant hours.

The other option is to agree with staff to take a pay cut. This is already being done in European football, although some players are not very amused by the move.

This should be a wakeup call to employers and lawmakers to think about coming up with a

Workers Emergency Relief Fund to help employees in such crises.

Can gratuity be paid at  such a time? If not, let us establish the Fund and every month a percentage of an employee’s salary, with a small percentage from the employer is remitted.

This fund has to be close to its members, less bureaucratic and run by the employer since NSSF has already declared that they can’t help in such times, which is unfortunate.

The author is a Social and Political Critic