Wednesday, May 27, 2020

How can the ICT sector in Colombia was affected by COVID-19 and how can it be recovered?

Authors: Bryan Bohorquez (bbohorquez@eafit.edu.co ); Miguel Ceballos, Maria Jose Franco Mejia (mjfrancom1@eafit.edu.co ) & David Muñoz (Ethics and Social Responsibility undergraduate course at Universidad EAFIT).


1. Introduction


The relationship between this assessment and ethics and social responsibility is to be able to see how different companies of different sectors are being affected by this huge issue that is COVID-19. This will also help to see how the different sectors are working to overcome this issue and if they are helping to overcome this pandemic in Colombia or maybe if they are doing the opposite and not making ethical decisions in their organizations. 

Data collected from the daily reports of the Colombian Ministry of Health at its twitter account (by 16th May 2020)



Description of the sector:


The information, communication and technology sector are “made up of the manufacturing and service sectors whose main activity is linked to development, production, commercialization and intensive use of new technology” ("What is ICT Industry | IGI Global", n.d.)and the companies in this sector provide services related to broadcasting, computing and telecommunications, all of which capture and display information electronically. In Colombia, this sector is extremely important to the economy because of the different organizations in the sector that are round 5.400, and in 2015 the employment rate in the sector grew to 90.978, but more important on mobile telecommunications and internet access which has shown a penetration rate of more than 100%. In this assignment we will be describing the different companies that take part of this sector and how they have impacted the community during the pandemic. 

2. Impacts of COVID-19 in the ICT sector in Colombia 


Vulnerabilities of the sector: The ICT sector has been affected in both ways, good and bad. The weakest point they are presenting on this difficult time is the customer service because sometimes the internet and other sources of communication like phones or cellphones can suffer different issues because everybody is using them, so they can collapse. For the different industry companies is very difficult to attend and solve the problems of all the homes, companies, and people problems. Other vulnerability is the earning from advertisement and events, during the year the different companies sponsor events and make a lot of money from advertisement, but a lot of companies need to be very careful and they cannot invest in advertisement. to finish they are vulnerable in an economic way because some people will not pay the bills because they are not having earnings.

Short term: During the short term, the sector of ICT has had a lot of different impacts. The demand of customer service increase a lot, internet consumption in homes increase in an important number, internet consumption in most of the companies decreased, low internet speed, more users will demand the different services, create different plans to help people with economic problems, create campaigns and advertisements to prevent the virus.

Long term: Its evident that the sector has been benefited during this situation because the demand has increased in an important number but in the long term the impacts will be very bad and serious, a lot of companies and users will not be able to pay their bills because a lot of businesses are finishing, a lot of people is not having their regular wages so it will be very difficult to pay this services.

Pace of recovery: If the Pandemic continues for a long time the recovery of the sector will be very slow, the sector will recover when people start working in a regular way and all the industries recover and start paying the fair wages.


3. Responses to COVID-19 crisis


National government:

  • Identifying the vulnerable: government announced that people with low resources are most vulnerable to this situation so the older people, also said that ethnic groups and people with incapacities have more risks. 
  • Social distancing: according to Tikitakas. (2020, april 13). they said “1. Wash your hands frequently, 2. Don't say hello to people with kisses or handshakes, 3. If you cough, cover your mouth with your elbow bent or with a disposable handkerchief, 4. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, 5. If you have a fever or shortness of breath, seek medical attention, but call line 123, 6 first. Follow the instructions of the local authorities and nation”. 
  • Travel restrictions: El Tiempo. (2020, march 19). In the 19 of march of this year Colombian government said that from 23 of march the country closed all international fly’s to Colombia in order to contain the spread of the virus for 30 days, with the exception of international fly’s that brings resources like food and medicine and other supplies. Also, transportation of supplies and interstate transport is allowed, but only to adolescents and kids, older population have to stay at home. They still close until day 
  • Closing borders: Acording to Francesco Manetto, F., 2020. the government of Colombia closed all borders in 17 of march until the 30 of May to all neighbor countries in order to stop de coronavirus from speeding 
  • Lockdown: acording to Tikitakas. (2020, april 13). Colombian government declares lockdown t 24 March until the 13 of April, but the 13 of April they extended to the 26 of April with the possibility of more extensions, this due to the increase number of infected. 
  • Financing responses: acording to Semana. (2020, april 10). Created the “Fondo de Mitigación de Emergencias (Fome)” in order to help economie issues, 
  • Recovery plans: Non-Available. 
  • Business continuity measures: according to El Tiempo. (2020, march 19) the government announced thar from the 23 of March all business must be closed until 15 of April and the food commerce may work but only in a digital way and by delivery. Also establishment that produces and provides main necessity products don’t have restrictions to operate, to this day this restrictions still operates 
  • Donations- front-line medical services: according to Republic P. (2020, april 10). thanks to the campaign “Ayudar nos hace bien” the government could donate 3 million pesos for food to vulnerable people. Donations according to Tiempo, T. E. L. (2020, april 9). multiple companies made collaborations for covid 19 like Postobon who donated 9.000 to health and Argos 10 million pesos in materials and Exito group donated food packages for the one who needed most 
  • Social distancing: according to Tiempo, T. E. L. (2020, april 9 companies like amazon, Postobon and Argos they have very restricted rules and punishments for those employees who not take care of themselves and comply with the restrictions that government and the minister of health dictated. 

4. Comparison of impacts and business responses:

Other sectors in Colombia:

  • According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Latin American companies will lose revenues of $ 15 billion this year. 
  • It's estimated that this pandemic will take 314,000 million USD from the sector, thanks to the drop of the 90% of world passenger traffic. 
  • The captain Jaime Hernández, in representation of the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (Acdac) they decided to offer their services for cargo and humanitarian flights, during the world emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. 
  • The more than 750 pilots who are part of Acdac, from controls such as Avianca, Latam, and Copa Airlines, announced that they will make the collection of their payments more flexible to help a little in the financial health of their companies. (Leal, 2020) 
  • According to Anko van der Werff, CEO of Avianca Holdings the effects of the COVID-19 have confronted them in the most challenging crisis of their 100-year history as a company. ("Avianca pidió la quiebra en EEUU por el impacto del Covid-19", 2020) 
  • Avianca declares bankruptcy due to the impact of Covid 19 
  • Avianca has reported a drop of 80% of its income. 
  • They reported that 14,000 of the 20,000 employees were discharged without pay. 
  • Thanks to New York Chapter 11, Avianca will be able to try to restructure their debts in a better way. 
  • They did a committed saying that they will do everything possible to preserve all their jobs 

Same sector in Latin America: 

Brazil: 
  • Claro and Nextel informed that they will not reduce the data speeds of their clients although the plan is already finished. 
  • TIM gave free access to cloud work packages like Microsoft Office. 
  • Claro, Net TV, Sky, Oi, Vivo and Algar Telecom opened access to several television channels that previously required to cover additional fees. 
Chile: 
  • Claro, in alliance with Cisco Webex, Google and Microsoft, made collaborative tools available to SMEs and large companies in the country, with up to three months at no cost for the first two, and six for the last (Contreras, 2020) 
  • Movistar, Claro, Entel, WOM, VTR, and noGTD enabled access to official educational platforms in the form of zero-rating. 
Ecuador: 
  • The government and the sector expanded bandwidth to support growth in consumption. 
  • No company will suspend its services from any client.
Peru: 
  • Companies will not interrupt services, even if customers do not cover invoices. 
  • Claro, in alliance with Cisco Webex, Google and Microsoft, made collaborative tools available to SMEs and large companies in the country, with up to three months at no cost for the first two, and six for the last (Contreras, 2020) 
  • Claro and Movistar released premium pay television channels until March 31 
Argentina: 
  • Telecom activated zero-rating on government educational content and prepaid recharge gifts, as well as more data. 
  • Movistar offered more gigabytes at no additional cost, free SMS, free-roaming, extra video content and online games, and balance loans for postpaid customers.
Colombia 
  • Claro increased data for postpaid customers and converged landlines by 50 percent 
  • Some companies are still using their personal # to remember their clients to be home the most possible. 
  • Claro, Movistar, Tigo, DirecTV, ETB y EMCALI enabled zero rating for government applications on the pandemic. 

Same sector in the rest of the world:

  • The main UK mobile networks suffered disruptions as millions of people started working simultaneously from home. 
  • Vodafone stated that its systems crashed 4 hours in some parts of Europe. 
  • WhatsApp was forced to increase coverage by 40%, incurring huge expenses. 
  • The UK regulatory agency OFCOM advised its residents on limiting downloads and the use of landlines rather than mobiles 
  • The UK was forced to invest much more in fiber optic technology. 
  • Several companies in Spain have increased the power of their services at no cost to their clients. 
  • Analysts from the consulting firm IDC Canada predict that several companies in this union will present losses. 
  • Safaricom has supported the government of kena in the establishment and operation of a 24-7 COVID-19 Information Centre. 
  • Safaricom has donated thermal cameras with a cost of 10 Million KES to the Ministry of Health (kena). 

5. Best practices in terms of social responsibility, recovery, and long-term sustainability:


  • The minister of the TIC´s Karen Abudinen announced that families with lower incomes will have the opportunity to apply to access subsidies that will allow them to have low cost internet in their homes. This project will help 500 families in Colombia. These families can access this help via a link or via phone call. (Hernández, 2020) 
  • Organizations in this sector have developed different initiatives to maintain connectivity during the pandemic ("Empresas del sector TIC proponen soluciones para garantizar la adecuada conectividad", 2020): 
  • Increasing internet capacity to nearly 400,000 homes with no additional cost 
  • Virtualization of services so people do not have to go out to pay their bills 
  • CoronApp for free with educational content to complement education sessions 
  • This sector became the perfect tool in Colombia for virtual education, working from home, commerce and even helping the congress sessions to take place virtually. The sector has provided tools for all these things to take place virtually an allowing interaction between people without having to meet up in person. This sector is also helping to re-open organizations and economic activities helping to accelerate the economy. ("“El papel de las TIC durante la pandemia ha mostrado su potencial”", 2020) 
  • The ICT sector are helping to keep the economy going, but it is also benefitting medical professionals who are taking lessons in the global community to inform themselves more of COVID-19. (GHOURALAL, 2020) 


6. Recommendation for restoring economic activity, employment, and social well being: 


Recommendations for policy makers (government):

  • The government that it’s in charge of the work and companies’ sector should create better policies that help companies to sustain during the pandemic. 
  • Government should work in better ways to create consciousness to the citizens that still thinks that this situation it is not serious. 
  • Companies and the government should work together to create a system that can work during this pandemic so the citizens would be affected by its consequences. 

Recommendations for business (managers, entrepreneurs and employees): 

Start creating coupons that customers can use after the pandemic comes to an end. Start using social media and technology to increase their earnings during quarantine. Freeze debts until the industry recovers. Train employees to start using technology in a more efficient way to work from home. Managers should give free programs to monitor people to prevent the virus like in Korea, start creating tele medicine where people from far places to be diagnosticated.

Recommendations for civil society (business organizations, customers, NGOs, media):


People should follow the orders of staying at home to flatten the curve, business should provide information to their clients about the pandemic and enforce this stay at home rule if they can on their employees. The media should inform of how this pandemic is affecting the community not only the economy and provide information on how people can prevent it from spreading. 

7. Conclusions:


This study analyses the risk management and social responsibility responses associated with the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 by ICT sector in Colombia from the moment the pandemic was announced by the Colombian Government, until it was declared controlled. The findings of this study show that in places where institutional measures are most drastic and adopted earlier, there were many different ways government tried to lower the contagion rate by encouraging and donating technology to the people, so they can work and study from distance avoiding physical contact and the spread of the virus, they are going hand to hand with technology and for a long term since we don't know how long the Covid-19 will last. The ICT sector has benefited because the demand of their services has increased a lot since the mandatory quarantine has been applied. On the other hand, the customer service sometimes collapses because a lot of users are complaining. The environment is the most benefited during this issue because people are staying at home so, pollution has decreased and the air quality is almost perfect because a lot of companies stop production and there are no people using cars, bikes or trucks.

The best practices in this sector provided by the sector in Colombia to mitigate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic were:
  • Facilitating employees with tools to work from home 
  • Giving their users incentives such as faster internet, premium tv channels, all for free. 
  • Providing tools to understand the pandemic for free 
  • Providing subsidies to help families in need access the internet 
Measures that could have helped during the pandemic. These measures were implemented by other places in the world that could be set as an example in Colombia:
  • The most significant thing that we found very useful was the donation of thermal cameras by Vodafone in Kena. 
  • Some companies should increase the time giving to inform more about how we can prevent in a better way this illness. 
  • Some companies should give more free access to cloud work packages like Microsoft Office.
In order to provide a successful response, and having an early recovery, managers should have ethics based on making decisions that will not only affect in a positive manner their own employees, but the community around them, and they should count with the following personal values: 
  • Integrity 
  • Honesty 
  • Compassion 
  • Determination 
  • Responsibility
This to work in an ethical manner and provide tools to help the people around them overcome this pandemic. 

Based on the evidence, the social responsibility of business in the ICT sector in Colombia are:
  • Giving the opportunity of less fortunate families access to internet services at a low price 
  • Giving families educational tools to learn about the pandemic for free 
This study concludes that to be a sustainable business in the ICT sector companies must:
  • Companies must provide tools for their costumer to pay easily through internet services 
  • Make ethical decisions to protect their employees and the community where they are located and preventing the disease from spreading 
  • They must improve their customer service  

References:










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Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Seguridad alimentaria: corto y mediano plazo de una crisis expuesta por el COVID-19


Por: Maria Camila Vargas de la Hoz (Negociadora Internacional, y Analista del Observatorio en Comercio, Inversión y Desarrollo)

Las consecuencias obvias de una pandemia como la que vivimos actualmente son las cifras crecientes de enfermos y fallecidos pero, adentrándonos ya en casi el sexto mes desde la aparición de los primeros casos, son evidentes y preocupantes los impactos secundarios de la crisis, que golpean con especial fuerza a economías que ya estaban en desventaja antes de la llegada del virus.

El Director Ejecutivo del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Internacional en Agrigultura CGIAR, Elwyn Grainger-Jones, afirmó en una entrevista que “la pandemia del coronavirus ha dejado expuesta una crisis de hambruna global a la par de la emergencia sanitaria”. La sostenibilidad del Sistema Alimentario es uno de los puntos que, sin duda, reclama respuestas de corto plazo para contener los efectos negativos que la pandemia ha profundizado y acelerado, como también acciones de largo plazo que logren un efecto conjunto sobre la economía, la seguridad alimentaria, el cambio climático y la salud de las poblaciones.

De acuerdo con datos de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), el hambre afecta a casi un billón de personas en en mundo, matando alrededor de 25.000 personas diariamente.

La pandemia por COVID-19 amenaza con dejar a millones de personas en la pobreza extrema, además de afectar las cadenas de suministro de alimentos poniendo en una situación de extrema vulnerabilidad a los pequeños agricultores y de manera especial, a las personas en situación de pobreza urbana, donde los más afectados son las mujeres y los niños.

La emergencia sanitaria ha hecho de Suramérica su nuevo foco y, en un continente donde sin excepción, todos los países están afectados con asuntos políticos no resueltos, altas tasas de desempleo, inseguridad y pobreza, los tomadores de decisiones se preguntan ¿cómo construir un nuevo normal?, ¿en qué invertir?, ¿a qué asignarle los recursos escasos?

Trabajar por una seguridad alimentaria es vital en el sentido más puro de la palabra, y elegir hacerla una prioridad el la agenda de reconstrucción es un acierto que demuestra la comprensión de que comenzar garantizando la satisfacción incluyente, justa y sostenible de las necesidades básicas sienta las bases sobre las que el verdadero desarrollo se yergue.

El caso Colombiano tiene muchas aristas. La disputa de tierras, el campo abandonado, los grandes latifundios, los inmigrantes venezolanos que trabajan en las cosechas y sus derechos, las cadenas de transporte y suministro y los créditos y garantías para los agricultores son solo algunos de los puntos de atención que deben ser atendidos al trabajar por un Sistema Alimentario Sostenible en el marco de la pandemia y el nuevo mundo post-COVID.

Alemania es un ejemplo de acciones para el corto plazo en lo referente al Sistema Alimentario. Si bien su caso y sus recursos no son equiparables con los Colombianos, considerar sus prioridades puede ser útil en la toma de decisiones.

De cara a la estrategia para sobrellevar la contingencia, la industria alimenticia y la agricultura se declararon en Alemania como un sector de importancia sistémica. Sus medidas de contingencia se pueden categorizar en dos grupos (1) Asegurar la liquidez y (2) Asegurar la mano de obra. En resumen, estas medidas consisten en asistencia económica en la forma de subsidios, préstamos, garantías y prórrogas a pagos a los productores y comercializadores de alimentos, al igual que permisos para la entrada de inmigrantes, que son clave en el trabajo del campo en el territorio Alemán.

La traducción para Colombia de estas medidas consiste básicamente en la protección del suministro de alimentos y de sus diferentes actores, dando prioridad a los más vulnerables, los pequeños agricultores, transformadores y comercializadores, con una campana transparente y justa.

De cara al futuro, Herrero, Thornton et al. investigadores del CGIAR y el CSIRO (Organización de Investigación Científica e Industrial del Commonwealth) compilan en su útimo trabajo “Innovation can accelerate the transition towards a sustainable food system” una serie de ideas prácticas aplicables a la recuperación y reestructuración de los sistemas alimentarios latinoamericanos.

Algunas de las propuestas de largo plazo de los expertos son:

1. En materia de consumo:

  • Promover una alimentación basada en plantas y la sustitución de los alimentos de origen pecuario y pesquero 
  • Masificar el consumo de insectos, algas y cianobacterias como alternativa a la proteína proveniente de mamíferos/aves/peces, cuya explotación tiene un impacto negativo importante en el cambio climático y es además poco eficiente en su relación gramos de proteína/toneladas de CO2 emitidas en comparación con las alternativas propuestas.

2. En materia de empaques:

  • Eficiencia en materiales y compromiso con la circularidad, separación en la Fuente y sistemas de logística inversa efectivos

3. Digitalización de la agricultura:

  • Se propone recortar las cadenas de suministro: “del campo al plato en un click”
  • Mejoría en la exactitud de los pronósticos climáticos
  • Un sistema digital integrado de alerta de enfermedades agrícolas
Para pensar en estrategias útiles para el caso Colombiano, se debe recordar que:
  1. El marco de acción/decisión respecto a los sistemas alimentarios es amplio e interconectado, abarca entre otros, la protección de la biodiversidad y la soberanía genética de las semillas, los procesos de producción, los empaques, los canales de distribución y las preferencias de consumo por parte de los individuos
  2. Como siempre, la responsabilidad no recae únicamente en un actor, sino que incluye a organizaciones multilaterales, Estados, empresas e individuos.
  3. Como es repetitivo también en temas de sostenibilidad, muchas de las recomendaciones requieren un cambio cultural y un trabajo de evangelización a Estados, Privados e Individuos.



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Sunday, May 17, 2020

Wellbeing economies

Opinion by: Catalina Tamayo Posada, Economist and Analyst of the Observatory of Trade, Investment and Development

“A wellbeing economy means allowing humanity to determine economics, rather than the other way around” (WEAll, 2019)
Last week, I came across a TEDTalk by Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s Prime Minister in which she challenges the traditional, and narrow, as she calls, measurement of GDP and urges other countries to focus their economic policy on collective wellbeing, meaning how happy and healthy the population is. (TED, 2019). Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand are leading the change in this matter: they created de Well-Being Economy Governments to pursue people’s happiness and therefore drive economic growth (people first). New Zealand, for instance, unveiled the first wellbeing budget with a special focus on mental health as suicide rates grow year on year. Combating family violence, child wellbeing among other issues, also conform the agenda for this country that aims to make New Zealand a place where you can make a great life (WEF, 2019).

In today’s world, there are less people living in extreme poverty, but inequality is raising: “what we are seeing today is the crest of a wave of inequality. The wave of demonstrations sweeping across countries is a clear sign that, for all our progress, something in our globalized society is not working. Different triggers are bringing people onto the streets: the cost of a train ticket, the price of petrol, political demands for independence. A connecting thread, though, is deep and rising frustration with inequalities.” (UNDP, 2019).

These inequalities are what wellbeing economies try to address by standing for better ways to measure countries’ economies, rather than just focusing in the actual GDP. The outcome of this approach would be better life quality,“reducing inequality, generating meaningful jobs and restoring our natural environment” (WEAII, 2019). 

Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), defines the Wellbeing Economy “as the capacity to create a virtuous circle in which citizens’ well-being drives economic prosperity, stability and resilience, and vice-versa, that those good macroeconomic outcomes allow to sustain well-being investments over time” (OECD, 2019).

Although, this is no new idea. Back in 1781, Jeremy Bentham intended to create a calculus of happiness that could account for how much utility an action generates in an individual. Later on, while some economists where trying to actually find a way of measuring economic welfare, the national accounting system was about to be created. In the 40’s, the Gross National Product (GNP) was adopted as the main economic indicator and since then, it has shown the “success” of nations. But, as Kennedy stated in 1968, “the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.” (HBR, 2012) 

For many years, it has been believed that pursuing economic growth brings development for all. The world we have today show as that we are far from that point and the approach needs to be revaluated (WEAII, 2019). Eva Illouz, an Israeli sociologist and writer, said in an interview few days ago that crisis as the one we are living today reflect the weakness of societies; she makes special emphasis on what is happening in the US, the country with the highest GDP in the world but with an insufficient health system. Moreover, “the sanitary crisis in many countries has demonstrated how much the health systems have been eroded by neoliberal policies” (El Tiempo, 2020).

Furthermore, the actual pandemic of COVID-19, has put in evidence tremendous lack of consciousness about the importance of improving health systems and its funding. For instance, in 2018 the Trump Administration shut down a federal agency dedicated to fight pandemics and epidemics, because there was not a fast return over such investment (El Tiempo, 2020), although the cost of pandemics are quite above accounting for “thousands of lives, billions of dollars and years of economic recovery for countries already torn by decades of war” (TWP, 2020). “Health was ignored, but the irony is that we now realize that it should had been the ground to build the economy”. (El Tiempo, 2020).

In addition, there is a growing push for this approach given the huge challenge we have with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to reduce poverty, improve health and education systems, reduce inequality among other issues, while driving economic growth. These goals should be addressed by 2030 and urge countries to take actions in order to accomplish them. However, as the focus has been for years GDP, countries are not yet ready to measure improvements in SDGs, “it is shocking that we can’t measure about 40% of the 169 SDG targets for OECD countries – meaning we can’t tell whether we are on track to meet them by 2030 or not” (OECD, 2019). Making a shift in the agenda in order to address people’s issues first rather than just economic growth, is what will help us all achieve the SDGs and really improve the lives of our people and our planet.

Whether wellbeing economies are the way or not, it is clear that the actual system that only pursues economic growth is outdated. Countries’ need to reevaluate how they measure progress so that people’s needs can be met. It is time to put people and the planet in the center of the economic policy so that the progress that the world has achieved so far can be protected and shared (WEAII, 2019).

“We need to build a more intelligent economic system, a new economy focused on human health and happiness” (OECD, 2019).

References




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Friday, May 8, 2020

Pourquoi l’éthique des affaires est plus importante que jamais pendant et après la pandémie du covid-19

Auteur: Charline Pivert (Universidad EAFIT, Colombie)
La situation à laquelle nous devons faire face en ce moment est inédite. Nous nous retrouvons confinés chez nous pendant que d’autres travaillent d’arrache-pied pour soigner nos familles et voisins dans d’extrêmes conditions. Chaque société s’adapte à la pandémie comme elle le peut, mais toutes les nations optent pour des solutions différentes.

Cependant, toutes les entreprises sont reliées par des questions relevant de l’éthique ; comment sortir la tête de l’eau face à cette crise en tenant compte des personnes qui nous entourent ? En France, certaines entreprises, comme McDonald’s, ont réouvert leurs portes avant la fin du confinement, et les employés ont dû revenir travailler pour pouvoir gagner de l’argent. Cependant, les mesures de sécurité n’étaient pas encore mises en place au sein des établissements ou alors n’étaient pas assez efficaces, certains restaurants ont seulement opté pour des bandes de sécurité au sol qui devaient être respectées, et d’autres n’avaient aucunes mesures mises en place pour respecter la distanciation sociale entre les employés et aucun masque mis à disposition.

Néanmoins, devons-nous en vouloir à ces entreprises qui essayent de tenir bon et ne pas perdre trop d’argent pendant cette crise qui va faire des ravages dans tous les pays contaminés ? La question est principalement éthique, les entreprises se demandent comment elles doivent prendre des décisions qui ne seront pas vues comme immorales.

Certaines mesures ont été prises étant donné que les restaurants restent fermés jusqu’à nouvel ordre, il est possible de passer commande et d’être livré à domicile. En faisant ça, nous contribuons à la relance économique et permettons aux restaurants de ne pas perdre pied complètement, mais pourtant le service de livraison à domicile n’est-il pas aussi contraire à l'éthique ? Après tout, c’est contribuer à ce que le livreur soit exposé à des personnes qui pourraient être contaminées.

Tous ces dilemmes méritent des solutions, c’est pour cela que l’éthique des affaires est plus importante que jamais en ce moment, il faut se poser les bonnes questions et se demander si la décision qu’une entreprise veut prendre ne sera pas au dépend des personnes qui l’entourent, et que l’éthique sera respectée et prise en compte. La sécurité et la santé des individus doit être au centre des préoccupations.

Une fois que la pandémie sera plus contenue et maîtrisée, il faudra relancer l’économie dans chacun des pays touchés par cette crise, c’est à dire une grande majorité, et le retour au travail sera une transition très angoissante. Le principal sujet d’attention est d’accompagner ses employés et de surveiller leur santé mentale face à cette situation désarmante, car certaines personnes auront surement plus de mal que d’autres à gérer cette reprise économique.

Il faudra donc se demander s’il est vraiment raisonnable de mettre les employés dans certaines conditions, revoir les trajets chez des clients par exemple pour les postes de travail qui le requièrent et ainsi les limiter pour que les employés soient le moins possible en contact avec d’autres individus lorsque la présence physique n’est pas nécessaire, et cela serait aussi un plus pour l’environnement.

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