The 16th meeting of the Executive Committee of the Pan-European Regional Council (PARC) of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) was held online on October 4 in Brussels, Belgium.
The meeting was attended by PARC President Irakli Petriashvili, Executive Secretary Anton Leppik, PARC and European Trade Union Confederation Secretary General Luca Vicentini, UNHCR Secretary General Sharon Barrow, Deputy Secretary General Owen Tudor and others.
The event discussed the situation with the COVID-19 virus in the region, the progress of the vaccination process, as well as the main points of the UNHCR and other important issues, and heard reports.
Sattar Mohbaliyev, chairman of the Azerbaijan Trade Union Confederation (ATUC), vice-president of the ITUC, vice-president of the PARC, who spoke at the conference online, first spoke about the consequences of the COVID-19 virus and the global threats it poses.
According to him, the world’s leading countries have failed to take preventive measures to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic, and therefore suffered great losses.
Azerbaijan is one of the few countries in the world that, thanks to preventive measures taken to combat the pandemic, managed to overcome the situation with minimal losses: “Azerbaijan has been provided with a socio-economic package worth about $ 2.7 billion to support the population and businesses affected by the pandemic from the first days. In order to support employment and social welfare, 12 packages were implemented in 4 areas. Although 80 percent of the 910,000 public sector workers did not go to work during the quarantine period, their salaries were paid and 2 million citizens were provided with social security. A one-time payment program of 190 manat per month has been implemented for low-income unemployed people, 90,000 paid public jobs have been created, at least 12,000 families have been able to build small farms within the self-employment program, more than 350,000 members of 85,000 families have received targeted state social assistance. Tuition fees of students belonging to socially vulnerable families were paid and 40 million manat was spent on it. In the private sector, state support has been provided to 600,000 people working in pandemic-affected areas. He also noted that Azerbaijan has provided humanitarian and financial assistance to more than 30 countries in connection with the pandemic, and sent 150,000 doses of vaccine to four countries free of charge. The chairman said that our country was one of the first countries to start vaccination against coronavirus.
To this end, enumerating Azerbaijan’s international initiatives as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, Mohbaliyev added that our main priorities in the post-pandemic period are to ensure economic development, economic and financial stability, and further development of healthy and competitive human capital.
He also spoke about the contribution of Azerbaijani trade unions to the fight against the pandemic, adding that mobile groups set up by the ATUC and its affiliates provided AZN 3,925,985 to 98,507 low-income families and AZN 6,500,762 to 92,254 trade union members. In total, 13,314,318 manat was spent for these purposes during the pandemic.
Mohbaliyev stressed the importance of social dialogue and trilateral talks to prevent the coronavirus and ensure the effectiveness of measures taken. He noted that the model of sustainable work after the crisis will be based only on partnership with the state, and the ATUC stressed the need for proper implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals set for countries, including Azerbaijan.
In conclusion, Mohbaliyev praised the work done by the ITUC on the issue under discussion and said that these steps were supported by the ATUC.