Cushion the poor against hard times, says labour organistion

By Luke Anami

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) hopes this year’s Budget will be sensitive to the plight of workers.

ILO Executive Director for the employment sector Jose Manuel said to mitigate against job losses as a result of the economic crisis, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta should establish people-centred measures.

"The focus of the response cannot be only in the financial and macroeconomic level, it has also to include measures centred on people to cushion the labour market, welfare and poverty effects," he said.

These include support for Small and Medium Enterprises to overcome cash flow and access to credit problems.

ILO is also pushing for introduction of temporary youth employment programmes.

With an estimated 10,000 Kenyans having lost their jobs since the beginning of this year and since the crisis is a global, using only national economic tools cannot solve it.

"African countries should enact fiscal and monetary policies to keep credit flowing and provide fiscal stimulus to the economy," he said.

The financial and economic crisis has hit labour markets so hard, turning what started as a financial crisis into a global jobs and employment crisis.

Key sectors that have driven growth in the past decade, such as tourism, mining, and manufacturing have been forced to decrease production and lay off workers.

Not enough

As Robert Zoellick, the World Bank President, has said, "Pumping money into the economy through fiscal stimulus is not enough, governments need to fix the financial system."

As the recession bites, poverty reduction unravels and middle classes worldwide are weakened, the risk is that social and political tensions will multiply.

The labour laws may have to be reviewed to reduce the cost of labour.

This is part of adopting flexible labour markets and employment policies to ensure business survival and scale-up training and skills development to support business during the recovery process.