Mauritius

3

Regular violations of rights

Same as last year

Region:Africa

Workers' rights violations

Repressive laws

In May 2020, the government of Mauritius amended clauses of the new Workers’ Rights Act to benefit employers. Trade unions fought to keep as much of the original law as possible, but only managed to block one of the amendments.

These changes came as a blow for Mauritian unions, including the Confederation of Workers in the Public and Private Sectors (CTSP), which had fought for sixteen years for a positive law amendment to be finally introduced in October 2019. A mere eight months after, the prime minister promptly discarded the progress made and gave way to the employers’ lobbying, indicating that the amendments would be returned to workers by 2024.

Right to collective bargaining

On 25 July 2020, Shavindra Dinoo Sundassee was dismissed by the Airports of Mauritius Ltd following his opposition to the management’s unilateral modification of the terms of the collective agreement.

Right to collective bargaining

In Mauritius, workers’ representatives were summarily dismissed by companies during the renegotiation of collective agreements. On 18 June 2020, Luximun Badal was dismissed by Mauritius Post Ltd for alleged refusal of a unilateral transfer following disputes over the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement for postal workers, the previous agreement having lapsed on 31 December 2017. Mr Badal had an agreement brokered by the Ministry of Labour on 18 February 2016 that protected him from being transferred as long as he was the president of the union. This did not prevent Mauritius Post Ltd from firing the union leader and later defying a court ruling from 18 October 2020 ordering the company to disclose information relevant to collective bargaining.

Workers’ rights in law

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