Madagascar: unions contest the loan project for workers in difficulty

Text by: Laetitia Bezain Follow

4 min

In Madagascar, workers' unions are against the loan project for private sector employees. There are tens of thousands of them without work and without income since the implementation of containment measures and the arrival of the first cases of Covid-19 in the country five months ago. If the workers' unions and private companies pleaded for the State to cover technical unemployment, this proposal was not adopted by the government. The President of the Republic indicated that employees in the private sector will be able to subscribe to a zero-interest loan from the National Social Security Fund, the public social security institution.

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With our correspondent in Antananarivo , Laetitia Bezain

A loan equivalent to one month's salary and repayable over 12 months granted to employees who have contributed to the CNAPS, the National Social Security Fund for a year. This is the government's proposal to help private sector employees. A measure that will put employees in an even more precarious situation, believes Barson Rakotomanga, the general secretary of the Syndicalisme et Vie de Société union.

“  For an exceptional situation of this kind, an exceptional measure must be put in place. So we asked that the CNAPS fund that is used to have profits, well, that those profits be used to help workers in the private sector during this crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. But we learned this week that the board of directors of the CNAPS has taken the decision to set up a loan for the workers. But this loan system is not possible for private sector employees who are currently in difficulty. They lost their jobs. They did not receive a salary or some only received half of their salary. So the measure we want the CNAPS to take is to subsidize workers. It is our money that belongs to the CNAPS, not that of the government. These are our contributions,  ”explains Barson Rakotomanga.

"  Without pay for five months  "

With the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Madagascar, they launched a petition which received 7,000 signatures from workers who plead for the State to take charge of unemployment. “  The signatures are accompanied by the name and CNAPS number of the employees. It is not only a few workers or a few trade unionists who demand these subsidies or who do not agree with this loan system, but they are thousands of workers  ”, continues Barson Rakotomanga.

Among them is Fidy, a machinist in a clothing factory, who usually receives a basic monthly salary of 205,000 Ariary (around 46 euros). “  Our company has put us on technical unemployment and we have been without pay for five months. Our bosses gave us two advances and demanded that we pay back when we return to work, so we are already in debt. I also had a loan at the bank and there, the Social Security Fund offers us to make a new loan. I am against that, especially since we do not know when we will be able to return to work. We are in great difficulty. Nobody talks about the workers in the free zones who are technically unemployed. We received no help. We can no longer pay the rent or buy food for our family. I cry out for the state to hear us and give us help . "

" M odify the social welfare code "

Contacted, the director of cabinet of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Public Service and Social Law and chairman of the board of directors of the CNAPS, Lolona Raharomampiandra Andraimanovontsoa specifies that " unemployment benefit is not part of the schemes of the Social Security Fund. Workers' contributions are intended for family allowances, accidents at work and retirement pensions . »In Madagascar, the social protection system does not provide any unemployment benefit. "  If we want to change that, we must modify the social security code which has the value of law so it must pass to the National Assembly  ," he explains.

Representatives of employers, workers and the State approved this loan project this week, but it has yet to be validated by the Ministry of Labor. “  Despite this legal vacuum that prevents the National Social Security Fund from allocating unemployment benefit, it tried to present employee assistance programs on two occasions but they were not retained by the government. We were not for this loan system, but ultimately the workers have no choice given this legal vacuum surrounding the CNAPS. No organization would agree to make a loan to workers at present, so the CNAPS loan is better than nothing,  ”explains Henri Botoudi, president of the Confederation of Workers of Madagascar, one of the workers' representatives on the council of administration of the CNAPS.

The unions who are contesting this project have planned to go again to the Prime Minister's office and to the CNAPS headquarters when they have reached 10,000 signatures on their petition asking for the withdrawal of this measure. On Friday, neither the Prime Minister and his collaborators, nor the CNAPS officials received them, they indicate.

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