12 December, 2010CMCTEU - the Chemical, Manufacturing, and Connected Trades Employees’ Union of Mauritius
How prevalent is CAL in Mauritius?
The whole history of Mauritius itself is CAL history, so to speak. It is traditional to have seasonal workers for sugarcane plantations; it is accepted by everyone that this is needed for the economy to survive. But, with the introduction of the textile sector, came more and more workers employed in precarious work, including migrant workers recruited especially from China.
The labour law was reformed in 2006 and migrants no longer have to follow a procedure – they come to Mauritius on tourist visas then search for employment. Protection against dismissal has been removed from labour law, so in a way all workers in Mauritius are CAL. There are no severance payments for workers under 60 years. Now, outsourcing even exists in the oldest spheres of the economy, and the way it is done is almost mafia-like.
How does the law protect against abuse of CAL workers?
The new legislation says that workers should not work more than 90 hours in a fortnight, but does not limit the number of hours per day or per week. There are situations where employers are making contract workers, migrant workers, and others work 20 hours in one day, without overtime. A complaint filed with the ILO got a favourable result in 2009 but despite this, Mauritius got the top African place in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, 2010.
From 2006 until now, we have seen considerable economic progress. The official unemployment rate is not meaningful as it does not take into account the high numbers of workers in the informal sector.
How do conditions differ for CAL workers?
CAL workers are obliged to work on Sundays. For new recruits, the definition of a week is no longer Monday to Sunday, but can be any seven days in a row. CAL workers also have to be completely flexible with regard to their working hours and starting times. In addition, CAL workers are not protected against occupational health and safety hazards. People are being transformed into a commodity.
Migrant workers do the same job but without the same pay. They receive no production bonus and no meal allowances. The Ministry of Labour will not deal with their complaints. Employers have the power to send away workers who complain, but so many are heavily indebted to labour brokers that they have no alternative but to accept their conditions.
The exploitation of CAL workers is heavily supported through discrimination. The law itself states that old workers must remain in the same work conditions, but newer recruits have worse conditions. So employers fire old workers unjustly or for petty reasons. For example, simply to accuse them of becoming unproductive as they get older.
Are there hostilities between permanent and CAL workers, and if so, how does your union deal with this?
There is hostility between CAL and permanent workers in the construction and textile sectors. In these two sectors, many companies close and reopen under another name and then employ only migrant workers. There are some cultural differences. It took four-to-five years to break down the barriers, but in general now all are persuaded that we should be defending migrant workers’ rights. In practice, migrant workers cannot organise.
What other action is your union taking on CAL?
Since 2006, several forms of taxation have been reduced for the very rich. Unions have been constantly demonstrating against this, as it is unfair. In 2009, the government introduced a corporate social responsibility system where 2% of net profits must be paid as a tax to finance social projects. The CMCTEU has proposed that half of this new tax should go to the workers – corporate responsibility to employees should come before corporate social responsibility, especially for CAL workers who are exploited. This would be paid as a bonus every year and everyone, including migrant workers, would receive an equal part.
We are hopeful that the government will agree to this and we have the full support of the media and civil society.
The strength of the union is its capacity to hold members. CMCTEU started by analyzing worker behaviour and found that most workers are primarily concerned about servicing their debts: more than 70% of workers in Mauritius are in debt. The union created an Information Technology school, open to all workers and their families, a credit union with low interest rates, and we are currently developing a two-story building that will be put at the disposal of members for social gatherings.
We are changing the view of workers, and they are becoming more interested in the union. We reduced the membership fee drastically and as soon as we did that we gained 3,000 new members. We’ve also amended the union rules: now every woman is considered a working woman even if they work from their home. Construction was the sector with the second biggest membership gains, including membership in cement plants and petroleum distribution. In construction, 85% of workers are employed on fixed-term contracts and those who join the union have big problems.
In the future, we will prioritise creating a severance allowance for workers based on one day’s wages for every month worked. It was agreed by the ILO experts and now it is only the employers who are resisting, but I am sure we can win.