National Project Coordinator for Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE), a project under the International Labour Organisation, ILO has stated that reducing the number of employees in the current economic environment, as part of measures to control the negative impact of COVID-19, is not the best decision for business owners.

According to him, the labour force is pivotal in growing businesses, thereby strengthening the economy.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the sidelines of a workshop on sustaining the ILO-SMEs agenda in Accra, Mr. Aseidu, urged business owners to employ diverse strategies to protect jobs and livelihoods.

“Many a time, when there is this kind of crisis, the first port of call is to reduce labour, cut down labour, or let people go home. But from our point of view, that is not the first port of call, there are several things that we can look at. In fact, the real issue is that labour should be the last item in the “bouquet” of enterprise that should be touched. We are saying this because when you lose a very important labour force today, you may not be able to get this force to re-engage and increase upon the productivity that you are looking at. So, what do we do? We can consider lots of permutations? Can we let them work from home or let them take reduced salaries? There are several thousands of options to consider. Just laying off workers is not the best way to go,” he said.

His call comes at a time when COVID-19 is continuously impacting negatively on businesses as many employers and employees have been hugely affected

Currently, many of them have to cope with the possibility of losing their jobs should the pandemic persist for longer.

In Ghana, the second wave of the coronavirus has since January 2021 prompted the re-introduction of social distancing measures and restrictions to economic activity.

Without certainty on the duration of the health crisis and its knock-on effects on the economy, the government has already begun re-assessing the status of benefits and measures introduced since the onset of the pandemic.

Already, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has predicted over thirty million jobs are threatened by the new coronavirus.