The International Labor Organization (ILO) Project Manager and Country Coordinator to Liberia, Salif Haji Massalay, has named protection of workers right as enshrined in the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Creation of Decent Employment Opportunities for all, Social Protection and Social Dialogue as the four key areas of ILO interventions central for enhancing the labor sector.
“It doesn’t matter whether one has HIV and AIDS; they have fundamental rights at work, entitled to social protection programs and the right to social dialogue,” he stated.
The ILO coordinator was speaking at the opening of the review and validation workshop of the National HIV and AIDS Workplace Policy and an Awareness Raising Campaign on Voluntary Testing. The Project is being implemented within the framework of the United Nations Joint Program on HIV and AIDS. The workshop and awareness-raising campaigns are being held in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, and Kakata, Margibi County, from November 22—27, 2021.
He said that the workshop is intended to review and validate the HIV and AIDS Workplace Policy, which has since expired, noting that the policy takes into consideration the four key mandates of the ILO. He further echoed that policy, which came into being in 2008, has since not been reviewed and validated. He added that the policy has outlived its lifespan and, hence, the need to be reviewed and validated.
Massalay, on behalf of the ILO Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Vanessa Phala, thanked the UNAIDS Country Director, Pepukai Chikukwa, for her strong leadership in the fight against HIV and AIDS. He also thanked the Ministry of Labor for their leadership role in the implementation of the old Workplace Policy and all key stakeholders that have been working to ensure the drafting of a new policy. He noted that the work around HIV and AIDS has always been an intervention from the United Nations and key stakeholders.
Speaking further on the old policy, Massalay said that whether the four key priority areas of ILO, as spelled out in the policy, were fully addressed during its implementation remains a big question. Partners have once more gathered to review its impact and to make determinations on what needs to be done in those areas. He said that, to ensure that people living with HIV and AIDS rights are fully protected at workplaces, the ILO have a number of conventions and recommendations on workplace policies when it comes to HIV and AIDS.
Also speaking during the validation workshop, the Director of HIV and AIDS in the Workplace at the Ministry of Labor, Emma Lawson Benson, said that regional consultation for the review of the old policy was done in 2015, and since then the Ministry of Labor has been seeking funding to have the policy document validated.
She said that the policy is legally guarded by the Decent Work Act Chapter 2.4 and 2.10, which talks about equal protection for people living with HIV and AIDS and nondiscrimination as well as the ILO Code of Practice in the world of work. She expressed happiness that the validation of the policy is finally taking place, noting that the delay has held back several support to the promotion of HIV and AIDS programs at workplaces in Liberia.
Benson said that once the review and validation of the policy are completed, printed and launched, it will be disseminated to all workplaces in the country. She thanked the ILO, UNAIDS, National AIDS Commission, National AIDS Control Program (NACP) and other stakeholders for their support in ensuring that the document is validated.
Speaking on behalf of the National AIDS Commission (NAC), the Partnership Coordinator, Zubah Mulbah, thanked the Ministry of Labor and the ILO for the new policy, which has been long anticipated since the old one elapsed in 2013. He said that his institution is in partnership with the Ministry of Labor; as such, as a lead, focal person, participated in all of the regional consultations on the review of the policy.
He maintained that all work relating to HIV and AIDS activities in Liberia cannot be fully successful unless the workplace policy is completed. He used the occasion to give special thanks to the MOL and partners, especially the ILO, in supporting government’s effort in the review and validation processes of the document.
He appealed to would-be implementers of the document not to place it on the shelf when completed, noting that Liberians are noted for drafting good laws and policies, but their implementation are poor.
The validation workshop will be followed by an awareness-raising campaign on voluntary HIV and AIDS testing, using different methods in Kakata, Margibi County.
The validation workshop and the awareness raising campaigns were attended by ILO tripartite partners, officials from the National AIDS Commission, civil society, labor commissioners from the regions, other key stakeholders and more than 150 students from Kakata, Margibi County. The activities spanned November 22–27, 2021.