There is an absence of democracy and transparency in most actions of most trade unions. The accounts of the union are controlled by a single individual holding two or more of the important positions in the executive committee. The annual returns submitted by most unions (if at all submitted) often do not reflect the actual membership nor do they give the actual expenditure incurred on trade union work. Reforms must be aimed at strengthening the trade union movement and having more transparency and democracy.

• The Trade Union Ordinance should be amended to raise the minimum number of members required for registration from 7 to 100 or 10% of the workers in the trade or in the enterprise (in the case of enterprise unuons).

• As the Mauritian government had ratified ILO Convention 87 of the provision, restricting public servants unions from federating should be reviewed.

• The minimum membership age in a trade union is made to conform to the minimum age of employment and the law be amended accordingly.

• The Wage Board Ordinance provides for setting up of Tripartite Boards for trades, to decide on terms and conditions of employment for employees in a particular trade.

Wages are too important an item, to be left purely to the collective bargaining process between employer and employee especially when there is an over supply of labour.

A National Wages Council as in Singapore would be an ideal body to regulate wages whose functions may also include (a) the regular survey and review of wage, salary, and benefit structures in the country, (b) providing guidance to participants at the bargaining table, (c) providing guidance to Wage Board members, Arbitrators and the Industrial Court and (d) providing guidance to employers and employees on what could be a realistic wage for any period thereby limiting extremes.

With globalization and liberalization, outsourcing and subcontracting have become important for industries to remain in competition in the world market

The Industrial Disputes Act has been in existence for nearly five decades and had been the main instrument for resolution of industrial disputes in the country. Experience shows that it has failed in its objectives of (a) speedy settlement of industrial disputes, (b) being inexpensive, and (c) being devoid of technicalities. Conciliation is slow, arbitration goes on for years and the Tribunal Court has a back log of over 10,000 pending cases .

It is hoped that amendments to the Act would remedy the industrial dispute situation of our country. A legal framework that will promote cordiality and peace in the workplace, protect the legitimate interests of employees and industries, would promote industrial harmony, lead to increased production and productivity and improvement in the quality of life of employees, is an urgent necessity.

The definition of ?workman? in the Act be expanded to include rural workers ? landless farmers, peasants, tenants, sharecroppers, and many others who have no regular work and no regular income ( rural workers constitute the majority of workers in the country)

Extending labour law into these areas where the most number of workers live and where the most urgent social problems are awaiting solutions may be the greatest contribution the country can make to the evolution of labour law. The law may be amended imposing recourse to compulsory conciliation and arbitration procedure in industrial disputes before calling strike.

Grievance procedure may be incorporated in the Act and made mandatory for all establishments to follow the procedure laid down in the Act that leads to disruption of work, a system of grievance source will help to promote industrial harmony in the workplace.

In this era of competition it is vital that disputes should not disrupt services or supply of goods and that employers should adopt proactive strategies both internally and externally to settle problems at early stages.

The business community has for many years asked successive governments to rationalize holidays because it affects productivity and costs. Mauritius has more holiday periods than most other African countries.

Employees covered by most of the collective agreements enjoy 42 days leave and two and a half days as additional mercantile holidays (half a day before Xmas & 1st of January) in addition to eight mercantile holidays.

Employees covered by the Shop & Office Employees Act enjoy by law 21 days annual leave, in addition to twelve full moon days and eight mercantile holidays.

Employees covered by Wage Boards have 14 days? leave. If we calculate the number of working hours of an employee working in the mercantile sector covered by a collective agreement, which provides for 42 days? leave a year, or an employee in the Banking Sector.

He would be working only about 1210 hours a year (compared to 1,889 hours by Japanese and US workers in 1989, 1,731 hours by British workers in 1997, 1,689 hours by workers in Denmark and 1,560 hours in Germany in 1996). The normal working hours of employees covered by most of the Wage Boards are about 1,627 hours (365-78-14-20=253 days or 36. 14 weeks x 45 hours = 1626. 42 hours) and where it is a five-day week it would be 1408 hours.

While accepting the need for maintaining certain national and religious holidays, the changed economic circumstances demand the pruning of holidays to a reasonable level. The workers may accept the change if it is rewarding. It is recommended that employees willing to work on holidays be employed on such days and their leave purchased. This is a very sensitive issue and the government has to act carefully in trying to rationalize holidays.

In conclusion I would like to state that our industrial system is inundated with a plethora of laws and would suggest that a careful survey of our labour laws be done, deleting what is obsolete, amending where necessary and codifying them in one corpus so as to represent a coherent, consistent and enforceable expression of the country?s labour policy and objectives in the context of the recent social and economic development.

*Member of the International Federation of Journalists

Ahmad MACKY*