ASEAN members seek to minimise impacts of COVID-19 on employment

ASEAN labour ministers discuss ways to minimise impacts of COVID-19 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Labour ministers from 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) attended a video conference on May 14 to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on labour and employment.

The virtual meeting also saw the attendance of representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The Vietnamese delegation was led by Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung.

The conference was initiated by Indonesia in its capacity as Vice President of the ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting (ALMM) in the context that the COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected economic sectors but also posed challenges to employment and the livelihoods of regional people.

At the meeting, the ministers shared information about policies and social welfare programmes for labourers in each member nation amid the pandemic, especially issues relating to wages, employment, safety and health. They also put forth recommendations to the bloc’s response to the impacts of COVID-19 in the fields of labour and employment.

Thanks to the high consensus and commitments of the nations, a joint statement of ASEAN labour ministers on response to the impacts of COVID-19 was adopted at the end of the meeting.

The joint statement emphasised that the need to deploy concerted efforts to promote labour and employment policies amid the potential adverse impacts of pandemics, economic crises and natural disasters in the future.

It showed the ASEAN member countries’ timely response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on labour and employment and recognised the endeavours taken by each nation to support affected employees.

The ASEAN ministers pledged to cooperate in providing timely assistance for the livelihoods and health for all labourers, especially those with low incomes and working in non-official and high-risk sectors; ensuring that employees who are sacked or lose jobs are compensated by employers or get social allowances; giving suitable help to migrant labourers among the ASEAN nations; and sharing the best practices and lessons about measures to support employees and employers.

ASEAN senior labour officials were assigned to implement the common efforts to prepare labour and employment policies amid the adverse impacts of future pandemics and economic crises. The joint cooperation was included in the working agenda of the ASEAN labour ministers for the 2021-2025 period and will be submitted to the 26th ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting.

Addressing the conference, Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung shared Vietnam’s experience in containing the pandemic as well as measures adopted by the Vietnamese Government to promptly deal with difficulties caused by the disease.

The Vietnamese Government has approved a relief package worth 62 trillion VND (2.6 billion USD) to help around 20 million people, mostly labourers who have been rendered jobless by the pandemic, and impacted businesses, he said.

ASEAN labour ministers adopt a joint statement at the end of the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Dung expressed his belief that, with the attention of high-ranking leaders and regional policy actions, ASEAN will soon overcome this difficult time, recover the labour market and build a cohesive and responsive community.

He took the occasion to thank other ministers, heads of delegation and the ASEAN Secretary-General for backing Vietnam’s initiative on building the ASEAN declaration on human resources development for the changing world of work that will be submitted to the 36th ASEAN Summit scheduled to take place in late June 2020.

The Vietnamese minister hoped that the declaration will create a significant cooperation foundation for ASEAN to improve competitiveness of regional labourers.

Apart from the closed meeting between the ASEAN member countries, there was an open meeting between them and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The ASEAN ministers expressed their hope for further cooperation with the ILO in labour and employment in the time ahead to deal with challenges caused by the pandemic and other relevant issues./.