ESWATINI COMMITTED TO ILO - PM

MBABANE – Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini has reaffirmed the Kingdom of Eswatini’s commitment to the values and principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The PM was speaking during the virtual ILO Global Summit on COVID-19 and the World of Work yesterday, where leaders and stakeholders from around the world were keynote speakers.

The PM first congratulated the ILO for remaining steadfast and providing leadership and support to its constituent partners during these trying times.
He said convening the virtual Global ILO Summit and the World of Work gave hope to the members that notwithstanding the novelty of COVID-19, it would not be bigger than their inclination to get together and solve problems as a collective.
“The ILO is known for dialogue and collective problem-solving. I hope it will draw into its wealth of experience and use that to contain the spread and effects of COVID-19 in the world,” he said.

Yesterday’s event, under the theme ‘Building a better future of work’ was a high profile session aimed at drawing lessons from the COVID-19 crisis, especially the policies and practices implemented to address its economic and social impact.
Tripartite participants from different countries shared experiences and discussed ways and means to apply the Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work to the post-pandemic recovery.

Sharing the country’s experience, the PM said at the outbreak of the disease the Kingdom of Eswatini declared a national emergency on March 17, 2020 and thereafter promulgated COVID-19 regulations, which were followed by specific guidelines dealing with sector specific prevention measures.  He said the guidelines were developed through consultative processes by various clusters of the National Emergency Task Team which includes workers and employer representatives.

“The overarching objective of the national emergency was to delay the upsurge of cases and allow our health system to better prepare and not be overwhelmed. The guidelines which came with the declaration of a partial lockdown included restricting movement of people, ensuring maximum adherence to hygiene protocols and health precautions, among others. These guidelines were drawn mainly from those provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and ILO,” The PM stated. 

Spread

Elaborating, the head of government said the country’s resources to contain the spread of the disease had been stretched and that international development partners, citizens and business organisations generously contributed in replenishing the much needed resources. 

In no particular order or size of contribution, he listed the partners who have contributed as the Kingdom of Morocco, Taiwan, USA, India, Kirsh Foundation, Business Eswatini, Eswatini National Provident Fund, UNDP, WHO, ILO and many others, without whom he said, the fight against the disease would have been much harder. “We still welcome partners who may wish to contribute to our COVID-19 Resource Mobilisation drive as we anticipate a need for even more resources to recover the economy, cushion affected businesses and workers as well as support our health sector,” he stated.

“As a country, we have done everything possible to protect loss of employment as a result of COVID-19”.
The PM said government had issued guidelines on employment of contingency measures which among other things provided for employment arrangements to mitigate against loss of earnings and interim measures for workplace governance which specifically addressed processes to lay off employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the guidelines also covered issues such as control on retrenchments, variation of contracts of employment, wages councils negotiations and occupational safety and health for all workers and, in particular, healthcare workers.  

“As layoffs have been increasing in the past months, government has established a relief fund for workers who have been laid off. To date, 12 000 workers are expected to benefit from the fund. This is a short term relief and workers will benefit for a maximum of two months. 

“It has thus become urgent for the country to set up an unemployment insurance scheme to cushion workers in times such as these. We wish to thank the ILO for the budget support to initiate the UIF in Eswatini. The Government of Eswatini will mobilise local resources to also contribute to this exercise,” he said.

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