By Benard Mujuni
Uganda has so far a registered total of over 120 private licensed companies to place Ugandan migrant workers abroad. As of Nov 2019, over 100,000 Ugandan migrant workers had accessed jobs in Iraq, United Arab Emirates, South Sudan, Somalia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait racking on well over 1.5 Billion dollars per annum. To protect the workers, and these inflows, Government signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia and has initiated bilateral Labour Agreements and Negotiations with other labour receiving countries such as Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Most of these went as domestic workers yet the COVID-19 demands robust labour rights protection unlike before.
With Uganda’s 12.6m workers in the informal sector, labour has come under intense pressure from COVID-19 than any other factor of production. Labour unlike machinery, land, technology, electricity, is the only flexible victim when harsh times appear in the production process. As such, the prevalence of COVID-19 at workplace and home is a double-edged poisoned arrow for the workers. Already, the informal labour in the creative economy is nose-diving. Recent attempts by bringing Nigerian artistes resulted into a near blunder regardless.
According to the Employment Act, a private home is not defined as a workplace yet COVID-19 has placed homes as workplaces and consequently “hospitals for self-isolation”. How will the vulnerable workers claim benefits under the law?
How will the affected people at home as a result benefit from the policies enjoyed by the formal workers who have turned home into an office/hospital?
There is need for judicial activism when these cases come to Courts of judicature in future. For instance, the Workers Compensation Act requires taking care of all the diseases or accidents acquired by an employee in the course of doing the business of the employer. This business is now being performed at home as a workplace.
The country’s labour force increased over the past decade from 10.9 million persons in 2005/06 to 16.5 million persons by 2013/14.Currently it is predicted to 24m. This represents an average annual labour force growth rate of 4.7%. About 75% of the labour force lives in rural areas whose households are not considered workplaces. These are places supposed to take care of Covid-19 isolation cases with no access to medical facilities.
The Community Volunteers Health workers by the MoH are themselves exposed to higher COVID-19 risks as they have no prior protection accorded to medical essential workers. A gender analysis indicates that females and males account for 52.4% and 47.6% of the labour force respectively but 60% of female household labour is unpaid care and social support labour. The COVID-19 pandemic makes this already bad situation worse!
The percentage of people employed in the formal sector is minuscule compared to those who are self-employed worsening statutory guarantees for protection of labour. Although the private sector has emerged as the major conduit for generating wage employment, its job absorption rate is still very low. With COVID-19, it is estimated by the Makerere University (EPRC) that 3.6 million jobs are already lost by close of this year.
Companies Rise or Fall on How Well They Renew Their LeadersHigh informalisation in the labour market raises serious COVID-19 risk and response issues because the informal economy tends to practically fall outside the ambits of labour laws and compliance. As a result, working conditions for employees in the informal economy are characterized by high job insecurity, low and irregular wages as well as highly flexible terms of employment with no medical or pension benefits.
Uganda’s labour productivity measured by GDP per person employed (Constant 1990 PPP) grew by 32% from US$2,631 in 2003 to US$3,477 by 2018 and accordingly surpassing that of Kenya which was US$ 3,397 in 2018. However, it still remains very low compared to that of her trading partners like India, China and Singapore whose labour productivity stood at US$9,907, US$17, 211 and US$52,024 respectively.
With COVID-19, companies are being challenged to employ new technologies, substituting labour to cut costs. This has resulted into more job losses. Government workers are contracting due to limited outreach capacities hence compromising service delivery in the public sector.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the situation of workers with HIV/AIDS profoundly. According to the Uganda HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey, the scourge reduces the supply of labour and available skills, increases labour costs in terms of absenteeism, medical care and reduces productivity. The effects of COVI-19 on access to HIV/AIDS services is decapitating for workers either at home or any other workplace.
There is, therefore, need for urgent attention by government to focus COVID-19 interventions at household level through community targeting. There is also need to redefine the home as a workplace under employment laws. There is also need to come up with a comprehensive universal social security scheme for the unrecognised informal working sector.
Benard Mujuni is a Legal and Policy specialist focusing on Social Capital.
benardmujuni@gmail.com
