TOUGH CALL

The Government may have to revert to its work-from-home (WFH) mandate, which ended last week for the public sector, amid heightened uncertainty around the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus which causes COVID-19, but stakeholders are of two minds about the policy that has been employed globally to combat the spread of the virus.

Jamaica recorded 2,472 new COVID-19 infections in the last week, 1,819 more than it did for the previous week, representing a 74 per cent increase in new cases.

A work-from-home order became effective on March 18 last year, requiring employees who undertake duties which can be carried out outside of the traditional office setting across Government and the public sector to work from home to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

That order expired on May 31, but a new order was made last September for public-sector workers, while private-sector employers were urged to consider making allowance for some of their staff to also work from home.

The order elapsed last Friday.

The Jamaica Employers’ Federation (JEF) has suggested that a new mandate for both sectors at this time could result in further economical challenges, considering the country’s painfully high inflation rate, a decline in productivity across companies, and folding businesses.

Some 840 businesses shuttered in 2021, according to records from the Companies Office of Jamaica last Friday – scores believed to be due to the ongoing pandemic.

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) are, however, of the same view that where entities and agencies can continue to facilitate WFH policies, they should do so.

“It has to be a judgement call. You can’t act on data that is not yet here. We don’t have yet 1,000 cases or 1,500 cases per day, but we believe it could go that way. It’s a very tough call,” JEF President David Wan said in a Gleaner interview last Friday.

Drawing on recent statements from Prime Minister Andrew Holness about a decline in productivity because of the mandate, Wan said it is critical to get the workforce back into a mode where people can interact with each other, revitalising creativity and team spirit halted by the pandemic.

“As soon as the numbers say that we’re in a fourth massive wave, if it does, they can act accordingly ... . I’m hearing from some employers that productivity has fallen with work from home. There is less pressure to perform. There is less teamwork going on; people are isolated and there is less creativity. The whole concept of teamwork has been affected. The mandate has affected employers in many ways,” said Wan, who stressed that the WFH mandate had a “definite impact” on companies.

Last Thursday, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told The Gleaner that the island was now in the fourth wave of the pandemic.

Early warnings about Omicron have come from a dramatic rise in cases in the United States, where hundreds of businesses have again temporarily closed, while others have delayed announcing the return of employees to offices en masse, opting to instead promote telework.

PSOJ President Keith Duncan last Friday acknowledged that while there is always a concern with a surge in cases as a fourth wave takes shape locally, increased compliance to guidelines already in place is what is required to limit the effects.

“In order to minimise the impact on businesses, economic activity and incomes of those in the workforce, we have to be disciplined around the COVID protocols and increase vaccination, especially of our vulnerable groups,” he told The Gleaner.

This, he added, would serve to minimise the spread of the virus and, in doing so, reduce the pressure on the public health sector.

Duncan said that once hospitals are not overwhelmed, there would be no reason to curtail movement through increased curfew hours, and current levels of economic activity can continue, or increase.

He said assessments are also needed in the public sector on productivity to determine the impact of WFH on specific organisations and job functions.

“In light of the threat of the fourth wave, I believe once hospitalisations remain low, we can continue to make incremental steps back to normalcy,” he said.

At the same time, he said that within the private sector, the pandemic has largely triggered innovation in how businesses maintain safe workplaces through work-from- home arrangements and the digitisation of processes.

“There is no need to reverse this, as long as there was increased productivity,” he said.

JMEA President John Mahfood told The Gleaner that the Omicron variant “is a real concern for 2022”.

“As far as the work-from-home policy is concerned, the Government should follow the private sector,” he said.

Mahfood pointed out that while the just-elapsed policy was not mandatory in the private sector, various companies had allowed it to continue, where the employees can remain productive without reducing customer service.

He said that in the same way, the Government should allow agencies and ministries to decide what works best for them.

“If the Government has discontinued the mandate, it should not mean that all government employees must return to work. As with the private sector, many government workers are equally productive working from home or the office,” he argued.

Meanwhile, the businessman said the productive sector had a difficult time in the second half of last year, first with the effect of the third wave and then with a disruption in the global supply chain which left many manufacturers short of goods to sell.

This, he said, impacted sales in the Christmas season.

Mahfood said, too, that this was impacted by the Bank of Jamaica’s decision to increase interest rates during an already-difficult time.

“The tourism sector saw improvement in late summer and in the last quarter, and was looking forward to a continuation of this in the first quarter of 2022. So, if there is a rapid rise in infections in the US and Jamaica, we will see a downturn in tourism and a return to additional measures to curb the spread of the virus.”

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com