THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called on government to pay US$100 to vulnerable employees as one of measures to enhance social protection during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In proposed recommendations, ZCTU said based on Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat)’s 2019 Labour Force And Child Labour Survey report released last month, 98% of the country’s 14,2 million citizens were vulnerable to direct and indirect shocks of COVID-19.

“Scenario 1a uses the food poverty line to benchmark the level of support required to cushion all employed persons (formal and informal), the majority of whom were earning below the poverty datum line. Scenario 1b also targets total employment (formal and informal), and uses the current gazetted minimum wage of $2 500 (US$100) as the basis for compensation,” ZCTU said in its latest COVID-19 response report.

“Instead of using the levels of employment, scenario 2a looks at the projected households in distress based on the estimated one million level that government has used in its social protection framework. Scenario 2b compensates the households in distress (one million) on the basis of the current gazetted minimum wage of US$100.”

ZCTU added: “These scenarios provide the lower and upper limits to the social protection floor, and therefore, the resources required to cushion employees from the effects of COVID-19 and the measures adopted to mitigate its impact (e.g, national lockdown)”.

According to the 2019 Labour Force and Child Labour Survey, the estimated number of currently employed persons is 2,9 million out of a population of 14,2 million.

-Newsday