IPNews-Monrovia: The Ministry of Labor of the Republic of Liberia, headed by veteran Liberian politician Moses Y. Kollie, has instructed authorities at Bridge International Academies, an educational organization working with the government to pay its employees nothing less than 50% in the wake of the Coronavirus.

The Ministry reached the decision recently in a meeting with some employees of the company as well as their legal and HR representatives.

The Ministry frowned on the action of the company by giving a meager10% of employees earnings which violates “COVID-19 Preparedness Guide for Workplaces and Workers in Liberia.”

Within the framework of Government’s COVID-19 Preparedness Guide, specifically under Chapter 6, Section 6.3, the Ministry of Labor categorically states:

“There should be no employees’ layoff except in the case of redundancy where the law remains fully applicable. Employers wishing to reduce staff not classified under redundancy must pay the staff full salary in accordance with the usual pay periods provided for in their contract of employment.”

The Ministry at the same time has requested that employees’ April pay which was drastically cut by the company be replaced immediately.

Sources close to the company said, 50% has begun hitting accounts of employees except that April’s payment is yet to take effect as instructed.

The COVID19 Preparedness Guide for Workplaces and Workers in Liberia came into effect March 23, long before Bridge took the action against its employees, making their inhumane action seem deliberate.

Many are calling for the company which has one of the highest numbers of labor cases at the Ministry of Labor to be reprimanded for such flagrant violation of the rights of its employees.

‘It was a complete contravention of the government’s mandate warning employers against unlawfully laying off employees without factoring in the case of redundancy,’ Ministry of Labor authorities stated.

Griffin Asigo, Country Director of the program, a Kenyan who since absconded the country in the wake of the pandemic said, ‘non-essential’ staff with accrued paid annual leave will be factored into the Compulsory leave period and paid. He continued

“The employees temporarily laid off will attract a gratuitous payment equivalent to 10% of their salaries under contract and retain their medical health insurance benefit,”

The Country Director’s COVID-19 employee layoff communication sees some employees earn as low as 10 percent of their intake monthly which is far below minimum wage and contravenes the Government’s policy during the pandemic.

The government itself has already placed several employees on paid leave in an effort to curtail overcrowding of the workplace but continue to pay them.

Mr. Asigo, many Bridge-Liberia insiders say, is using the coronavirus global pandemic to deprive workers of their just earnings while employers of other companies in Liberia and abroad are finding innovative solutions to the economic crunch that the COVID-19 pandemic presents. His is sheer wickedness!

Being a global company, Bridge continued to pay employees in America and Europe while the pandemic rampaged but refuses to do the same in Africa where there are less cases making one to wonder if the idea is racist.