COVID-19 and its impact on the world’s most vulnerable workers

Governments and businesses around the world are currently taking aggressive measures to halt the spread of COVID-19. Self-isolating, limiting large gatherings, closing non-essential businesses and completely locking down countries have brought cities across the world to a complete standstill. In times of crisis like this, it can be so easy to focus on our own personal inconveniences -  missing out on holidays or from spending time with our friends. At the same time, the past has proven that crises like these can bring out the best in people. Neighbourhood, community, and city initiatives dedicated to helping the most vulnerable are mushrooming all around the world. Let us extend that same compassion to a particularly hard-hit group: workers along our global supply chains.

Whilst many of us can afford to distance ourselves from each other by working from home, others can’t. Stories are emerging on the implications of the virus for some of the world’s most vulnerable workers. Workers who work in enclosed spaces are at a higher risk of contracting the virus because it can easily spread. Miners in particular run a higher risk of serious health issues if they contract the virus, because they often already have underlying health issues due to the nature of their work. Farmers in countries currently in lockdown, such as Italy, are struggling to sow, and face the prospect of a meager harvest later this year. Seasonal workers in agrifood, who depend on the income from the sowing season, are blocked from entering these countries. Workers in the manufacturing and apparel industry face job losses and pay cuts when factories in sourcing countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia close down. Workers in the informal or gig economy bear the financial brunt of the crisis, because they often lack proper contracts or social protection.

Particularly vulnerable are those workers in countries without social support systems

The impact of business closures, pay cuts and job losses ripples through society. Already, the coronavirus has caused a spike in global stress levels. Workers and the households they support will have to mitigate this mental health strain with its resulting financial pressure, in particular daily or hourly waged workers. The need to secure basic necessities, especially amidst global panic-buying, adds further strain on those living from hand to mouth. Particularly vulnerable are those workers in countries without social support systems: workers who cannot fall back on paid sick leave or an adequate health care system; those who cannot avoid public transport, or live in settlements too densely populated to adequately quarantine. 

Suffice to say, nobody really knows the deeper implications for the world's most vulnerable workers. But isn’t it worth opening up channels for listening to them and doing so sooner rather than later?

&Wider is all about creating the bigger picture. We started with mobile worker engagement because the invisibility of workers kept us up at night. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 is a magnified version of this reality. By partnering with companies, international organizations and local NGOs, we believe listening to workers directly can make a contribution to finding out what is really going on in the face of remote working policies, factory closures, and other difficult circumstances.

Inquiry…will help guide commercial investment, as post-corona recovery depends on everyone easily bouncing back

Inquiry is the prerequisite for innovation. Human capacity for innovation shines brightest during such times of deep crisis. Once we know how various workforces are affected, we can then employ the ingenious brains and hearts of humans all across the globe to conceive and develop remedies in places where it's needed most. 

Inquiry is crucial not only to understand the impact of this pandemic now, but also for a post-corona world where businesses are able to resume their normal operations - hopefully in more innovative ways. To know what the implications are now will help guide commercial investment, as post-corona recovery depends on everyone easily bouncing back and ramping up business once again. But if workers are on their knees and unable to quickly recover, then supply chains will not be resilient.

We don't have all the answers about how to address this information gap, and we know that insight alone will not provide the bigger picture we’re all desperate for. However, finding out and listening fully to what the impact this pandemic is having on families, lives and livelihoods, should be our utmost priority.