New and updated resources on COVID-19 and global workplaces - Verite, ILLEJ, ILO, ITUC, IFC, Solidarity Center, Ergon

Italian Labour Law E-Journal 2020

There has been a proliferation of excellent resources on COVID-19, global workplaces, and social protection systems tn the two months since the WHO announced that COVID-19 was a global pandemic. Below are some of my favorites:

• ILLEJ:  On May 11, 2020, the Italian Labour Law eJournal updated its Special Issue on COVID and Labour Law to add 20 additional countries, increasing both the scope and regional diversity of this excellent comparative law resource. Some of countries added to the special issue include Lebanon, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uruguay, Indonesia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, and several countries in Africa, including Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia - just to name a few.The great thing about this resource is that the articles are comprehensive yet concise - only about 3 pages each. 

• ILO: The ILO's resource website on COVID-19 and the world of work continues to be a great resource on COVID-19 and the workplace, with a 3rd Edition of the ILO Monitor on COVID-19 and Work published on April 29, 2020. One of my favorite new reports on the ILO site is The COVID-19 response: Getting gender equality right for a better future for women at work issued on May 11, 2020. This 11-page report provides data on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on working women. Unlike the 2008 crisis which primarily impacted the economic sectors in which men predominate, the COVID-19 crisis affects those sectors in which women predominate - healthcare, education, retail, food and hotel services, and administrative services. The economic effects of the pandemic are also having a major impact on the 740 million women around the world who work in the informal sector. These women have no access to workplace, income, or social protections when they cannot work due to lockdowns and curfews.

Solidarity Center 2020

In addition to the "Just the facts, ma'am" resources, there are resources that delve into workers' stories and experiences and the effects of the pandemic on specific sectors of workers. Some of these key resources include:

• Verité: The consulting services NGO Verité has compiled several Reports on Labor-Related Impacts of COVID-19, including reports the global public health crisis has had on agricultural workers, workers and farmers in the cocoa sector, the garment industry, hospitality industry, illegal mining and logging, and migrant workers in the Gulf - just to name a few.

• International Trade Union Confederation: The ITUC has put together the COVID-19 Pandemic: News from Unions resource page, with reports from trade unions all over the world and policy statements on the impacts of the virus on working people like the March 24, 2020 ITUC Global COVID-19 Survey: Half of countries in lockdown as COVID-19 pandemic wreaks health and economic havoc on working people and their families and worker-based strategies for overcoming the health and economic effects of the pandemic like the March 23, 2020 G20 COVID: Trade Unions Call for Coordinated Action for Public Health, Jobs and Incomes. The ITUC recommended policy measures include paid sick team, income protections, mortgage and rent relief, universal social protection and access to healthcare, and childcare support for frontline workers. 

• The Solidarity Center's Workers and their unions take action on COVID-19 resource website shares stories from workers and trade unions around the world about the impact of COVID-19 and related policy measures on workers' lives and livelihoods. Where articles in ILLEJ provide the overall impacts and policy changes, the stories shared by the Solidarity Center provide the context and subtext - as in the case of the report Bosnia and Herzegovina Labor Law changes hurt workers. The Solidarity Center site also shares stories of unions helping workers through the COVID-19 crisis in stories like Stepping into the Breach: Unions provide key aid in COVID-19.

CDC Investment Works & Ergon 2020

There are also some great resources for employers on how to support workers and keep workspaces safe from the risk of COVID-19 infection.

• International Finance Corporation: The IFC published Interim advice for IFC clients on supporting workers in the context of COVID-19 on April 29, 2020. The 9-page guidance sheet explains the COVID-19 challenges faced by different categories of workers (seasonal workers, women workers, older workers, workers with pre-existing conditions, casual workers, gig workers, migrant workers). It then provides tips and tools for employers to help workers address these challenges in global supply chains. 

• CDC Investment Works and Ergon developed COVID-19 Guidance for investors and financial institutions on job protection, a 16-page advisory that makes the business case for addressing job protection, then provides guidance for investors and financial institutions on how to address job-related risk in investment portfolios and implement financial measures to protect jobs in times of crisis.

Jobs, and therefore job protection, are a crucial part of this ability to recover. Skills and labour are valuable company resources, and retention of these skills can allow businesses to maintain a competitive edge beyond the crisis, avoiding potentially costly hiring and re-training costs in the future. This is especially relevant if there is likely to be competition for skills and talent in certain sectors once the COVID-19 crisis is over. (CDC Investment Workers, 2020)

Powerful Wilson Center webcast on the impact of COVID-19 on gender disparities in Latin America

The Wilson Center (2020)

The May 19, 2020 Wilson Center webcast on The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Disparities in Latin America featured three excellent presentations by experts in Guatemala (Adriana Quiñones), Uruguay (Karina Batthyani), and Washington, DC (Claudia Piras) on the acute challenges faced by women in Latin America during the COVID-19 crisis.

The public health crisis and lockdown are exacerbating existing disparities and challenges women face on a daily basis. These challenges and disparities include unequal access to the labor market, low quality jobs in the informal sector, lack of social protections such as healthcare and social security, occupational segregation, the excess burden of care work in the home, and domestic violence. The speakers highlighted that despite general awareness of the challenges women face on a daily basis, the COVID-19 policies and assistance programs developed by national and regional institutions do not target women to receive benefits - or simply leave them out by adopting eligibility requirements most women cannot meet.

All three of the speakers are doing cutting-edge work that is worth checking out.

• Adriana Quiñones of UN Women is leading the UN's Put an End to Domestic Violence campaign in partnership with women's rights advocacy groups in Guatemala;

• Karina Batthyani of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences just put out an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on women's care work; and

• Claudia Piras and her colleagues at the Inter-American Development Bank just put out a brand new working paper on female labor participation and its impact on growth in Latin America.

The panel was to the point with lots of timely and sobering information packed in. Women in Latin America are suffering during this crisis and policy makers at the national and international level need to act now.