Million Mekonnen was fired over a piece of cloth. The size of the cloth is in contention, but even she does not deny taking it.

It happened one Tuesday morning back in March while she was still working in the storage section at Bole Lemi Industrial Park. Back then, there were only a handful of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the country, but everyone was on their toes — vigilant against the obscure virus.

In the storage room where she worked, Million handled imported goods that came from Djibouti and distributed them to line managers at the Park. The mother of a one-year-old boy had growing concerns for her own safety, especially knowing that other countries were far more affected than Ethiopia was at the time. So she decided to make a mask from the fabric her employer was using for production.

"I'd been wearing the same disposable mask for nearly a week," she explained, "so a few colleagues and I made masks out of a minimal amount of fabric."

Her supervisor caught her and 10 others while they were working with the masks on. They were told it was a serious disciplinary breach.

"I was wearing it while I was working — It wasn't like I was trying to take it in my bag with me. I just wanted to be safe," said the 22-year old tearfully. "I used my scarf that day at work."

She was hoping they would understand and let her off easy, but 12 days later she was handed a letter stating that she had thereby been relieved of her duties.

"I pleaded with them," she said, "to cut my salary — anything but take away my job. They knew I have a son I raise alone. I was working there throughout my pregnancy."

But a committee, she was told, had deemed it a serious offence, and nothing she said or did could make any difference. After nearly six years of service in the Park, Million found herself jobless in the midst of a pandemic without so much as a day's notice.

Her termination would be one of many over the following months.

Companies at industrial parks across the country were facing a significant drop in orders due to the pandemic and the consequential restrictions. Retaining employees became a dilemma. On the one hand, keeping employees meant paying salaries despite low production; but on the other, letting them go was equally disagreeable if only for the sake of the resources the companies had spent on soft and hard skills training. The COVID-19 workplace protocol also outlawed letting go of staff without exhausting all other options first.

At Hawassa Industrial Park, the country's largest in terms of the number of sheds and employees, a middle ground solution was posited. The companies, which had recorded up to a 90pc decline in orders, would retain as many employees as possible while providing basic salaries.

All other benefits needed to be cut for the companies to continue operating, according to Belay Hailemichael, the Park's Investment Commission CEO.

This would mean cutting transportation, food and attendance allowances for employees. The latter are bonuses for employees who are present throughout the whole working month. Many park employees relied on these allowances to make ends meet. With a basic starting salary of around 900 Br, the allowances were the difference between making it through the month or not. Many employees at parks walk to work to save that transportation stipend.

As a result, nearly 7,000 employees left their jobs in Hawassa alone. In the past quarter of the fiscal year, the Ethiopian Investment Commission reported that over 11,000 people had left their jobs across industrial parks in the country, a few hundred more than the new hires made during the same period.

Turnover is not a new issue for industrial parks, although over the past few years, the rate had been steadily decreasing, according to management and investment associations at the parks. But following the onset of the pandemic, the number of new hires also plummeted significantly.

Transportation tariffs doubled following half capacity carrying laws for public transportation due to the pandemic, leaving many unable to afford the rides to and from work. Employees themselves were distraught, especially as the confirmed cases in the parks started growing. By July, Hawassa Industrial Park had more than 500 confirmed cases.

Affordable housing, however, is the biggest culprit for the high turnover rates.

Million pays 1,700 Br a month for the room she rents with her son. Though she started with a salary of 680 Br when she first came to work at Bole Lemi, over the years she had slowly managed to raise that figure to 3,600 Br. Her good performance had only just earned her another raise to 4,500 Br a month when she was suddenly let go.

"I was without any income for almost two months after that," she said. "But my landlord waived two months of rent for me."

Over 15,000 employees work in Bole Lemi Industrial Park, and at least 1,500 of them are housed in on-site dormitories built by a Korean textile company.

The company currently has 4,500 employees and plans to build more dormitories to house up to 9,000 people, according to Tinsae Yimam, general manager at Bole Lemi.

Tinsae cited employees leaving to start families as another reason for the high turnover rate. With the average park employee aged 18 to 34, this does not come as a surprise. While there has been work underway across parks to accommodate these needs through facilitating daycare centres, none have so far managed to operationalise one. This is although over 80pc of park employees are women.

For single mothers like Million, putting her child in daycare took a third of her salary.

"I was asking neighbours from time to time whenever I could," she explained.

She can no longer afford child care but is dependent on neighbours to look after her son when she is gone.

A worker-run cooperative union aimed at supplying basic consumer goods to Park employees at Bole Lemi is also in the works. Owned by employees of the park who buy shares, it is expected to ease living expenses and provide another means of income for the employees, according to the general manager.

"We've already received financing for the project," said Tinsae. "We'll launch it by June."