COVID-19 Wages Stop or Continue Them

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COVID-19 wages is a general term for money, governments across the world, are paying unemployed workers because of the pandemic.

It is called a ‘benefit,’ which is very misleading. Entitlement is more like it, because governments deduct money from wages and salaries and store it somewhere, waiting for a rainy day. That day is here, in the form of COVID-19.

COVID-19 wages have different names depending on the country. In Canada, it is called the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

We are about five months into the pandemic and some businesses have re-opened. That is why there’s a question on the table. Should governments stop COVID-19 wages or prune them somehow?

POLITICAL JAUNDICE

Unfortunately, politics come to play. Conservative Party leaders like Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister feel that people don’t want to go back to work because they will stop getting the CERB, the Canadian COVID-19 wages. Republicans in the United States are in agreement.

First of all, that is not possible. Workers who qualify for CERB, submit bi-weekly reports. One of the questions in that government report is: were you willing, able and available to work? Something like that.

Therefore, you don’t get paid if you refused work. Lying is out of the question because the employer will report that you turned down work. Employers and the government are identical twins when it comes to information.

Secondly, politicians advocating that CERB should be cut assume that everything is back to normal, meaning, we have the same number of jobs and businesses we had before COVID-19. 

The reality is, padlocks on some businesses in your hometown; reduced business hours; less customers because they are restricting limited financial resources to food, shelter and health; laying off permanent and part time workers and postponing business decisions like surgery and expansion projects.

People did not stop working because they wanted to. They are caught in a storm, a health storm called COVID-19, which is not providing any indication of settling down, anytime soon.

Therefore, relief measures like CERB must continue.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

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