Co-funded by the European Union

Cote d’Ivoire: a special tripartite committee to face the Covid-19 pandemic

  • The Committee was established on the top of the existing social dialogue institutions with the objective to deal with issues specific to Covid-19 crisis.
  • One of the topics for reflection is a new legislation on remote working.

When Covid-19 hit the world, the Ivorian Government took specific measures both in terms of public health and support to the economy and society. The support measures resulted in the creation of four support funds for large enterprises, SMEs and actors in the informal economy and general populations. At the request of the social partners, the Government agreed to devote part of the Solidarity Fund to workers who are victims of technical unemployment or collective redundancy for economic reasons.

In view of the specific impact of the crisis to the world of work, the Government established a “Tripartite Committee to fight against the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the world of work” by Decree N.2020-052 of 15 June 2020.

The Committee is made up of advisory members from three colleges: government college, employers’ college and workers’ college. In the college of employers sits the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d’Ivoire (Confédération Générale des Entreprises de Côte d’Ivoire – CGECI), which is an IOE member.

This Committee's mandate is to:

  • “Identify and propose to the government measures designed to reduce the impact of the crisis on businesses and jobs.
  • Harmonize understanding and ensure buy-in by employers and workers for the measures taken by the government as part of its response plan to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Allow the social partners, within the framework of their respective mandate, to contribute to the implementation of measures taken by the government.
  • Propose consensual mechanisms for the application in companies of measures taken by the government.”

At its third meeting, on 6 October 2020, the Committee focused on the following topics:

  • The use of funds put in place by the Government to help businesses and workers;
  • the regulation of teleworking;
  • the introduction of unemployment insurance.

Subsequently, “the members of the Committee invited the Government to submit a proposal on teleworking. However, this should leave the determination of the modalities of its implementation to negotiation between social partners”.

CGECI actively participated in these meetings with concrete proposals that meet the needs of its members and the business world in general, particularly on technical unemployment, partial unemployment, part-time work, collective dismissal.

Mr. Eduard Ladouyou Sibahi, Head of the Human Capital and Social Relations Department of CGCEI and member of the tripartite Committee, positively reacted to the Government in creating the Covid-19 Tripartite Committee through the Ministry of Employment and Social Protection, to enable social partners to contribute to the crisis solutions. He stated that “this shows that dialogue is the key of success and that a normative framework must always leave space to the social partners for negotiation of the details, in order to better meet the real needs of the different sectors of the economy”.