Recently, Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs (MOLSA) in Collaboration with the International Labor Office discussed the findings of the “Assessment of Private Employment Agencies Service Provision in Ethiopia,” conducted in Addis Ababa. During the discussion, Ayelech Eshete State Minister at MOLSA said there are several challenges in the private employment agency which need immediate reaction from the government and other concerned organs. She also noted that even though the International Labor convention No.181/1997 stated that Private Employment Agencies (PrEAs) shall provide services for users without any discrimination or bias, yet it is in vain in Ethiopia.
The State Minister added that the duty to tackle challenges associated with labor and social affairs should not be left to government organizations or MOLSA alone, it also needs the involvement of all PrEAs. Silesh Temesgen, Assessment Team Leader told The Ethiopian Herald that the objective of conducting the assessment is to identify problems frequently observed in the Private Employment Agencies regarding service provision and come up with possible solution. Based on the finding of the assessment, the number of employees recruited through PrEAs has shown increment. However, the engagement of private employment agencies in the provision of local employment services was started without putting the legal framework of specific nature in place, he noted.
According to Sileshi, the private employment agencies are currently operating without legal frameworks as there are no specific restrictions and sanctions on agencies scope of services except mentioning compliance with the general labor law. This needs a policy level legal reform and revisions of requirements, setting best practices of other countries which have become successful in regulating triangular employment relations as benchmarks. Niguse Geletu member of the Assessment team said that most of the PrEAs are not capable to provide services as they are anticipated, because most of them lack sufficient capital, organized offices or qualified/experienced manpower.
Though collaboration and forming associations is advisable for PrEAS to bargain with service users on employee pay and benefits, they usually focus on competition. Nigusse added that the employment relations are not clearly defined and are found to be with prevalent noncompliance with the existing legislative frameworks.
The nature of the employment relations are found to be exploitative, with lower or no protection from work hazards and damages, meagerly remunerated, violations of working hour limit, discriminatory, a gross violation of minimum working standards, abuse of overtime payments, little or no additional benefits at all. The PrEAs employees gain relatively lower terms and conditions of work compared to those recruited by the service user organizations for a similar job, Nigusse noted.
There are also cases where employees of PrEAs work without contractual agreements. Even for those with employment contracts, the contracts in most cases do not fulfill the requirements stipulated in the labor law. It is also not customary to give copies of the contractual agreements to the employees.
In most cases, the contracts are prepared for short periods even if the nature of the work is of indefinite type, he added. The commitment of the government to create a decent working environment is pronounced in a number of actions like ratifying and authorizing important international instruments to be considered as part of the inland legislative frameworks, Silesh noted. According to him, through the formulation of employment policy is institutional capacities bestowed to MoLSA, they are yet limited to the works of execution, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation.
The root causes of the limited capacities in the Ministry and Bureaus has resulted from a lack of structured organization from Ministerial to lower administrative levels, shortage of skilled and experienced manpower, and high staff turnover. The collaboration and coordination between the concerned stakeholders have also been found to be weak and fragmented. Nigusse added. Setting clear restrictions or conditions in line with the labor proclamation in a way that PrEAs should establish longterm employment contracts with their employees for outsourcing services (like in Europe where some countries ban engagement of PrEAs employment services in some sectors or specifically set timeframes) is necessary.
It is also vital to include terms for protection from discrimination and maintaining equality among employees recruited through the PrEAs and those directly hired by the service users including conditions whereby PrEA employees are entitled to the same facilities and benefits as employees of the user firms, he noted. Besides, the ministry along with regional labor and social affairs bureaus has to undertake institutional reform and structural organization so as to address barriers associated with regulating PrEAs and the enforcement of laws and codes, Sileshi expressed. According to Nigusse, it is important to revise the requirements for licensing PrEAs.
The pre-request criterion should take into consideration that organizational structure, quantity, and quality of human resources, and finance as major components to license PrEAs. PrEAs on their part need to be transparent with their clients in terms of salary, benefits, and safety and it is also advisable to incorporate duties and responsibilities in legal documents, Silesh said. PrEAs should also adopt submission of the periodic report to the relevant body; undergo plan performance evaluations with stakeholders. Silesh suggested that relevant stakeholders are advised to actively participate in events organized by MOLSA on issues associated with PrEAs.
Herald January 10/2019
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
