Namibian unions fight for gender equality

The speeches by Namibian Vice President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, at International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations, in which IndustriALL affiliates, Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (MANWU), and the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) participated, confirms that she is fighting on workers’ side on gender equality.

Unions say her involvement is one of the reasons Namibia was the first African country to ratify International Labour Organization Convention 190 to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work. As minister of women’s affairs, she carried out a national campaign on breaking down barriers that were rooted in cultural norms. She said harmful cultural norms were responsible for gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) at the workplace and eradicating them has a direct impact on ending GBVH. She is also advocating for gender inclusivity at the workplace and has accepted invitations to union events.

There is also evidence of her experience in government that goes way back to the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action in Namibia and on the continent.

On 8 March at IWD commemorations, organized by the National Union of Namibian Workers, one of three national trade union centres in the country, under the theme: Inspiring women in leadership for inclusion, Nandi-Ndaitwah said:

“This year the UN has themed IWD as: Invest in women, accelerate progress, which highlights the importance of gender equality. Allow me to reaffirm the Namibian government’s commitment to upliftment and empowerment of women in society towards the eradication of historical and cultural injustices perpetrated against women which undermine their ability to realize their full economic potential.” 
 

To address the gender pay gap, she said there must be equal pay for work of equal value irrespective of a worker’s gender.

At the MUN conference earlier, whose theme was empowering and gearing women up for future leadership roles, she said: 

“As government we have paved the road for women’s struggles with our experiences, and have made steady progress through national constitutions, laws, and policies. We are fighting against gender inequality because it denies women opportunities.”

However, for women empowerment to be realised, she said there should be inclusive representation and decision making at workplaces, and gender sensitization policies should be promoted. She added that skills training should include collective bargaining. She emphasized the need for action against GBVH which she said is a hindrance to women empowerment and that harmful cultural norms that perpetuated it should be dismantled.

IndustriALL' s Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary Paule France Ndessomin said: 

“It is reassuring that we have gender equality champions in the Namibian government like Vice President, Nandi-Ndaitwah. This is important in the unions quest for meaningful engagement in social dialogue without the anti-union hostility that we have witnessed in some countries, and that women issues in Namibia will be at the top of her agenda.”
 

DRC: Organizing critical transition minerals value chain

Critical minerals are in demand for transition to renewable energy and are used in the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles, vehicle parts, and smartphones.

The DRC has major deposits of copper, cobalt, tin, tantalum, and lithium among other minerals.

According to the Congolese ministry of mines, the country has 61 active cobalt mining sites, of which 76 per cent are mined by Chinese companies and 10 per cent by the Swiss commodity trader Glencore. Other mining companies in the country are from Australia, Kazakhstan, and India. The stated-owned company, GECAMINES, also mines cobalt. 

A 2023 study by RAID, a UK based non-governmental organization exposing corporate human and workers’ rights abuses, and Kolwezi-based legal aid provider, Centre d’Aide Juridico-Judiciare (CAJJ), calculated living wages at $480 – an amount that most of the mining companies were failing to pay despite declaring huge profits to their shareholders.

Most of the poorly paid workers were employed by sub-contractors under precarious working conditions of low pay, no job security because of short term contracts, and were also denied benefits. The mining companies also violated workers’ rights to health and safety.

To improve the working conditions, IndustriALL affiliates in the DRC: Organisation des Travailleurs Unis du Congo (OTUC), Secretariat des Syndicats IndustriALL de la CDT (CDT), Travailleurs Unis des Mines, Metallurgies, Energie, Chimie et Industries Connexes (TUMEC), Confederation des Syndicats du Congo (CSC), and Union Nationale des Travailleurs du Congo (UNTC), with members in the mining and energy sectors, met in Kinshasa in mid-February to strategize on organizing along the critical transition minerals value chain.

The meeting, organized with support from FES DRC and FES Trade Union Competence Centre for Sub Saharan Africa, discussed how unions can better organize the value chain and not lose the organizing opportunities. Importantly, the unity of the unions remained one of the key issues in organizing.

The meeting produced a plan that included organizing meetings to deal with multinational corporations where working conditions were poor. One such corporation is Glencore.

Previous investigations by IndustriALL at Glencore mines revealed non-compliance with health and safety regulations and the difficulties faced by unions on collective bargaining and organizing because of management’s union busting.

Unions said they wanted to promote formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining to enable unionization. Reports say that there are over 200 000 artisanal miners in the DRC who are mining cobalt and if they are unionized, this will boost union membership.

The unions outlined the challenges they were facing, like some labour inspectors blocking union activities, government’s failure to engage unions on critical minerals, and difficulties in accessing some remote mines. It was also difficult for unions to engage artisanal miners on health and safety issues because some of them were not formalised. The unions expressed concern over gender-based violence and harassment which was rampant in the mines.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining said:

“The DRC is a critical minerals producing country and multinational companies are the campaign focus of IndustriALL to improve working conditions in the mines. The unions should engage on human rights due diligence, climate change, and the Just Transition discussions as these were important matters to learn and beneficial to the mineworkers in the DRC.”

Photo: Shutterstock
 

Legal enforceability necessary for sound industrial relations

IndustriALL and many of its TGSL affiliates were in attendance and brought a strong voice to the importance of binding agreements as a tool to move beyond company self-regulation of global supply chains.  Voluntary social auditing has shown to be a failure, in terms of both protecting workers’ rights and reducing risk to multinational buyer brands and their investors.

In the opening session of the forum, entitled binding company-union agreements and its role in due diligence, IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie stressed that binding agreements play an essential role in industrial relations: 

“If we don’t have legal enforceability, there are no industrial relations. Without these agreements workers and employers will be on different planets. Employers hold all the economic powers, and they will use it if they are not held to checks. Without legal regulation and binding agreements, workers would still be slaves.” 

The panel addressed how binding agreements can be important tools for due diligence and how it promotes pro-worker codes and freedom of association and that it is essential to have supportive governments and responsible brands.

“IndustriALL has been able to bring brands to the table and sign agreements, some of which are legally binding. The Bangladesh Accord, now called the International Accord for health and safety in the textile and garment sector, has changed the fate of workers. The agreement has allowed for clean up in the clothing and textile industry in Bangladesh compared to what it was before the collapse of Rana Plaza,” 

said Atle Høie. 

It is essential that more brands sign these agreements, the more brands are on board the more enforceable they are. The more countries are part of the Accord, the more countries unions can clean up. These agreements will always be necessary to ensure workers receive the best. 

Global framework agreements were highlighted as a tool to better conditions for workers along the supply chains. To date, IndustriALL has signed six binding agreements with global brands and retailers and in the upcoming of renegotiation of these agreements, pressure will be put on multinationals to include a dispute resolution mechanism that includes binding arbitration.  
 
An OECD industrial relations roundtable brought together enterprises (brands, manufacturers) and trade unions representing workers across garment and footwear supply chains to explore the importance of active engagement with trade unions. Setting up a structure between, trade unions, brands, and manufacturers, having regular meetings, possibly in production countries, and the publication of the guidance document in multiple languages were some of the main topics discussed at the roundtable. Moving forward the OCED will investigate these items and revert to participants. 

A side session on responsible supply chains in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Turkey focused on the launch of the OECD’s garment and footwear sector capacity building. This three-year programme was launched in Decemeber 2023, focusing on how governments can build an enabling policy environment for responsible business conduct (RBC), strengthen national contact points (NCP) for RBC and increase business understanding and capacity to implement due diligence.

IndustriALL’s MENA regional secretary, Ahmed Kamel, participated in this panel:

“Together with our MENA affiliates we started with the NCP, with brands and suppliers to use the international tools to enforce social dialogue, at a company level, supply chain level and the industry level. We are trying to put new tools in the regions, like GFA’s, the Accord and ACT agreements so that the region can use these and implement. Stakeholders’ commitment is key to move forward.”

Major take aways from the forum include having a more comprehensive approach to due diligence that will have legal and non-legal aspects, more direct support for vulnerable groups which include groups affected by climate change and low socio-economic workers and addressing industry imbalances by acknowledging the existing disparities within the fashion industry, participants emphasized the need to level the playing field to ensure fairness and equity across the board.

Nigerian unions protest increasing cost of living

The demands include unions’ call to reverse the current anti-people and neo-liberal economic policies. Workers demand urgent measures to address food insecurity, to stop the free fall of the local currency, the naira, reconsideration of the removal of the petrol subsidy and implementation of the wage award of 35000 naira (US$22) which has depreciated in value by more than 50 per cent since the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the government in October last year. Unions are also demanding the payment of arrears, living wages, social protection for all working people, job security, and an end to insecurity in the country.

The protests were called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and supported by IndustriALL Nigerian affiliates who joined the industrial action. 

Joe Ajaero, president of the NLC and general secretary of IndustriALL affiliate, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), said:

“We are saying let there be food available to the people, let the people live in safety, let the people live a life of dignity devoid of suffocating International Monetary Fund/World Bank policies.” 

In Kaduna State, North West Nigeria, John Adaji, the co-chair of IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa region and president of IndustriALL affiliate, National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers, led the protests with the state NLC chairperson, Ayuba Suleiman.

John Adaji, said:

“We want a conscious effort by the Federal Government of Nigeria to revive the labour-intensive textile industry and enforce the government’s Executive Order 003 on patronage of locally produced goods and services. This is one of the sure ways to save the naira and protect existing jobs in the textile and garment sector.”

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary, said: 

“We will continue to reiterate and support Nigerian workers’ demands because they must be paid living wages to enable them to support their families. Social protection is also important to cushion workers against poverty wages especially precarious and informal workers who are the most vulnerable,”

IndustriALL affiliates in Nigeria organize workers in the automotive, energy, chemical, oil and gas, textile and garment, and other sectors. The affiliates are Automobile, Boatyards, Transport, Equipment and Allied Senior Staff Association, Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Senior Staff Association, National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather, and Non Metallic Products Employees, National Union of Electricity Employees, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, National Union of Textile, Garment, and Tailoring Workers, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, and the Steel and Engineering Workers of Nigeria.

Beyond the sparkle: advancing workers' rights in the diamond sector

The diamond industry value chain includes mining, rough trading, cutting, polishing, manufacturing, jewelry setting and retailing. 

The 20 participants, from the Global Diamond Network came from diamond mining countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The other participants came from Belgium, home to Antwerp, a historic hub for diamond traders, cutters, and polishers.

Reports from the mining countries on violations of workers’ rights and decent work deficits which included precarious working conditions of low wages, absence of job security, long working hours, gender discrimination, violations of maternity protection, and union busting and bashing. The meeting heard that diamond mining companies also failed to provide adequate personal protective equipment and did not comply with health and safety standards. 

Participants committed build union capacity in collective bargaining through focused training and learning initiatives aimed at improving negotiation skills in mining, polishing, and cutting. They argued that this will strengthen and promote knowledge transfer through exchanges and solidarity activities among the unions. Furthermore, the meeting underscored the importance of gender equity in the diamond industry, advocating for better representation of women. 

The network encouraged unions to join the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) and to use the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining as it is comprehensive and makes mining companies accountable through audits and assessments. Additionally, the meeting discussed cooperation with non-governmental organizations on human rights due diligence. However, the network urged unions to remain focused on making the diamond industry comply with national and international labour standards. 

Emphasizing the developmental potential of diamond mining in the Global South, the network highlighted the need for mining companies to engage in responsible mining practices and ethical sourcing to contribute to job creation, economic growth, and sustainable development. 

Through the network, Belgian union ACV-CSC Transcom and IndustriALL supported the building of the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho’s office at Kao Village to facilitate better access to recruit and organize mineworkers.  

Yves Toutenel, general secretary responsible ACV-Transcom Diamant and IndustriALL diamond network Co-chair, said: 

“As we convene this network meeting, nestled in the heart of Southern Africa, we are not only surrounded by the breathtaking landscapes of this nation but also by the rich heritage and potential of the diamond trade that pulses through its veins.”

“Lesotho holds a special place in the world of diamonds. Its mines have yielded some of the most remarkable gems, captivating hearts and minds across the globe. Yet, beyond the glimmer of these precious stones lies a deeper narrative – one of resilience, community, and shared prosperity.” 

Commending the network, Annelies Deman, Federal Secretary of Algemene Centrale ABVV – Centrale Generale FGTB said:  

“I met and engaged with comrades who are doing a great job in the diamond industry, shared our challenges, learned from each other, and set up priority action points for the future of the network.” 

May Rathakane, IDUL, general secretary said: 

“We are grateful for the support and solidarity that we received for our organizing drive to unionize Lesotho’s diamond workers.” 

“As trade unions we must not tolerate unfair labour practices in the diamond industry and must use collective bargaining, global framework agreements, and ILO standards as tools to attain decent working conditions,” said Mpho Phakedi, the National Union of Mineworkers, acting general secretary.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining, diamonds, gems, ornaments, and precious stones emphasized:  

“It is important for the network to develop strategies that enhance collective bargaining which remains one of the trade union’s most effective tools.” 

Cost-of-living crisis hurdle for organizing in Ethiopia

The crisis is a result of many factors which include the impact of the civil war in Tigray which displaced millions and killed thousands. Some factories were destroyed whilst others were closed, and thousands of workers were retrenched when economic activities came to a standstill. The US government then suspended the African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits for Ethiopia citing human rights violations during the war and this led to more factory closures with several investors leaving the country.

The unions said basic average minimum wages are as low as 900 Ethiopian Birr (US$16) across sectors while inflation is increasing sharply. Inflation is currently at 28.7 per cent according to the country's central bank, the National Bank of Ethiopia. In the absence of national minimum wages, the country’s low wage economy is making it difficult for workers to afford food and other basics.

The unions stressed that renewed efforts in support of the introduction of national minimum wages could be part of the solutions to address the crisis. For example, the ILO Country Office for Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan organized a study tour to learn more about productivity and minimum wages in Vietnam. The study tour in November 2023 was undertaken by an Ethiopian tripartite plus delegation which learnt more about the national minimum wage setting mechanisms in Vietnam and how similar processes can be implemented in Ethiopia.

The unions expressed concern over the late payment of wages, with some workers not being paid for over six months. The crisis also led to workers not paying union dues thus depriving unions of income.

As part of a fact-finding mission to understand the realities on the ground, the unions are planning to visit the Tigray and Amhara regions to meet their members, and to assess how organizing can be revived.

Despite the cost-of-living-crisis, the unions continued their recruitment and organizing drives with support from government agencies and stakeholders that included the ILO. There are also plans to strengthen collective bargaining strategies with employers, improve industrial relations, campaign for gender equality, as well as engage in social dialogue.

The unions are also optimistic.

“We hope that the social and economic situation will improve in the future; and that unions will be able to organize without fears of conflict and insecurity,”

said Alemayehu Debele, president of the Federation of Commerce, Technique and Printing Industry Trade Unions.

“Capacity development for shop stewards remains our main focus,”

added Mengesha Dessie, president of the National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical, Petroleum and Mine Trade Union.

Angesom Gebre Yohannes, president of the Industrial Federation of Textile, Leather and Garment Workers Trade Unions said:

“We are engaging employers on saving jobs that still exist in the industrial parks to curb further job losses.”

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa emphasized:

“We will continue to provide support to Ethiopian unions in their organizing and living wage campaigns even in these distressful times.”

Reflecting on labour and community gains at the Mining Indaba

Dialogues and conversations took place under the theme “Embracing the power of positive disruption: A bold new future for African mining.”

In the opening address South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said trade unions have achieved milestones against “the slave wages and appalling human rights and health and safety standards under apartheid.” The achievements included the rights to form trade unions and the protection of fundamental rights at work.

Reflecting on the Mining Indaba’s history, unions said there were some gains for labour and communities.

“As unions reflect on the gains of labour and communities, it is important to state that it was not a smooth journey. From the beginning, unions and communities fought hard for recognition through engagement with the conference organizers on the role that mineworkers, trade unions, and communities played in the mining industry,”

said Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director.

As a result, the Mining Indaba programme now includes the participation of workers and communities to protect their rights and interests in the mining industry. For the last seven years, IndustriALL Global Union affiliates have been taking part in the deliberations at the Mining Indaba and the Alternative Mining Indaba (AMI), and this year the participants came from unions in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Amongst the sessions IndustriALL participated in included a panel discussion on “Developing a fruitful and inclusive labour sector – policies, politics and possibilities” in which Kemal Ozkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, emphasized on inclusive labour policies that incorporated social dialogue. He said that “mineral resources must be used for the industrialization of the African continent and that a Just Transition must be done on the workers’ terms.”

Mpho Phakedi, the National Union of Mineworkers acting general secretary said:

”The trade union’s main roles and responsibilities are to protect workers’ interests, and those of communities where they live. These interests should be reflected in labour policies.”

Jens Dyring Christensen, ILO senior enterprise specialist, who was also on the panel, stressed on the importance of social dialogue as a policymaking instrument that unions can use.

Other sessions that the IndustriALL delegation participated in were on the just energy transition, the future of coal mining, disruptive strategies on mining and energy and the African Mining Vision, environmental, social and governance (ESG), business and human rights, and critical transition minerals.

Several sessions focused on responsible mining standards. At the roundtable discussion on the role of standards and third-party assurance systems in promoting ESG performance hosted by the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) it was reaffirmed that the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining is a valuable tool which integrated ILO standards, OECD guidelines and human rights due diligence. This integration created a culture of industrial peace, accountability, and meaningful dialogue between workers, communities, and mining companies.

IndustriALL also participated at the AMI whose theme for 2024 was: “Energy transition minerals: Putting communities first for an inclusive feminist future.”

The AMI, which celebrated its 15th anniversary, was formed to provide a platform for mine affected communities and civil society organizations who felt excluded from the Mining Indaba and runs its parallel programmes during the Indaba week. Over the years IndustriALL affiliates have become an integral part of the AMI’s community and civil society dialogues and engaged civic alliances and coalitions on labour issues.

Amongst key issues discussed at this year’s AMI included increased calls for the beneficiation of Africa’s mineral resources, a Just Transition, inclusive approaches on ESG, human rights due diligence, and decent work. Also on the agenda were the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining and the inclusion of women in mining activities through action against gender inequality.
 
 
 

Zambian unions campaign for revived production at Konkola Copper Mine

KCM, which has copper and cobalt mines at Nchanga, Konkola, Nkana, and Nampundwe, and a smelter, is 80 per cent owned by Indian multinational Vedanta Resources. The remaining 20 per cent is held by the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investments Holdings. 
 
After disputes over taxes and level of investments and the subsequent takeover of KCM from Vedanta Resources by the Zambian government in 2019, production at the mines plunged and the copper mine was put under liquidation. Vedanta took legal action through the arbitration court in London. However, negotiations began with the Zambian government leading to handing back control of KCM to Vedanta in September last year. Vedanta has since dropped the legal route and says it will invest over US$1 billion in KCM. 
 
Speaking through a video conference at the Mining Indaba, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema confirmed that the government is engaging with Vedanta on resolving legacy debts at KCM.
 
The Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ), affiliated to IndustriALL, is campaigning for the resolving of a dispute over the payment of debts owed to contractors by KCM. The union says that if not resolved urgently, the dispute may lead to the closure of some mines. 
 
MUZ, which welcomed the agreement between the Zambian government and Vedanta, calls for the immediate availability of the one-off payment promised to workers, which will be at least 20 per cent of their wages. In a reply to union demands, Vedanta says in a letter that it will implement the agreement.
 
Joseph Chewe, MUZ president says: 

“Unions are concerned that the production levels remain low. The delays to return to full capacity are adversely affecting our members and the communities that rely on mining for livelihoods.”

IndustriALL mining director, Glen Mpufane, says:

"“We commend MUZ for standing for the rights of mineworkers at KCM, and for supporting dialogue between Vedanta and the Government of Zambia. Mineral resources are potential catalysts for socio-economic development. But this can only happen if mines like KCM are fully operational.”
 

Photo: Shutterstock

Deplorable working conditions at textile and garment factories in South Africa

These conditions included 12 long working hours with only 30 minutes lunch break. Occupational health and safety violations are common, with workers facing restrictions when going to the toilets and having lunch in areas with unsanitary conditions. Some chemicals used in the factories were unlabelled and handled without personal protective equipment and in some instances placed in front of fire equipment. Some fire escapes were blocked creating hazardous environments in case of fire.

Further, the factories paid wages that were below the minimum wages for the garment and textile industries. Some of the employers were paying R10 per hour (US$0.53) instead of the industry’s minimum wages as agreed upon in the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry, made up of unions and employers. The rates in the collective bargaining agreement were above the national minimum wage which is R25.42 per hour (US$1.40).

IndustriALL's affiliate the Southern African Textile and Workers’ Union (SACTWU), said some of the non-complying factories were operating as unregistered cooperatives to evade national labour laws and collective bargaining agreements. For example, the factories were paying below the minimum wage that was agreed upon in collective agreements and instead paid paltry wages based on piece rates.

By using unregistered cooperatives, the factories were also violating the cooperatives’ laws and undermining union strategies to leverage wages on collective agreements. SACTWU has used the extension of collective agreements to non-parties – those factories not represented in bargaining councils – as a strategy to ensure that workers received living wages.

SACTWU’s provincial organizer for KwaZulu Natal, Patrick Mthembu, said: 

“The union is recruiting and organizing the workers as one of the strategies to enable the declaration of labour disputes with some of the offending factories. It is difficult to declare a dispute if the workers are not members of the union as this is part of the legal requirements to take up issues for conciliation, mediation, and arbitration.”

SACTWU is organizing workers at the factories who include migrant workers.

“Factory owners must respect and allow workers to enjoy the rights at work in the textile and garment factories. South African trade unions, including SACTWU, have fought hard for the enactment of the national labour laws and for the ratification of international labour conventions on workers’ rights and collective bargaining and these gains must be protected through compliance,”

said Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, inspections are carried out to investigate complaints and to ensure compliance on working hours, leave, contracts of employment and wages, prohibition of forced and child labour, variation of employment according to collective bargaining agreements and sectoral determinations and other working conditions. Further, the inspections are carried out to promote international labour standards and fundamental rights at work.

Garment workers in Mauritius to receive compensation from leading fashion brands

In 2022 and 2023, US-based organization Transparentem, that investigates workers’ rights, scrutinized conditions at five factories in Mauritius and interviewed 83 workers.

Transparentem found multiple signs of forced labour, defined as a form of modern slavery by the International Labour Organization. The report also found workers paying illegal recruitment fees for their jobs, and that workers were subjected to deception, intimidation and unsanitary living conditions including having no access to clean drinking water, and cockroach and bedbug infestations.

After commissioning their own audits of conditions at the factories, fashion brands including PVH and Barbour have said that they will reimburse workers at Real Garment, one of the factories named in the report, up to US$508,918 in illegal recruitment fees.

Migrant workers in Mauritius are deprived of justice. Once they are on the island, they often become the property of their employer who has the sole right to cancel their work permit and expel them with the support from the passport and immigration offices. No clearance is needed from any other authority before deporting a migrant worker. 

IndustriALL affiliate Confédération des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publique et Privé (CTSP) has been supporting migrant workers in Mauritius for the last 25 years. The compensation is a major victory for the union and the workers, but there is still more to be done.  

Migrant workers are employed in the export oriented industries which include the garment and textile and manufacturing sectors. However, the CTSP has campaigned for national legislation that include the Workers Rights Act to be used to protect migrant workers against wage discrimination, precarious work in short contracts, long working hours, and low pay, and limited access to social protection and other forms of discrimination. 

Reeaz Chutto, CTSP president, says:

“Unfortunately, it is no secret that Mauritius, similar to other economies, has opted to leverage its competitiveness through the overexploitation of migrant workers. If a migrant worker dares to denounce their employer for ill treatment or abuse they are deported overnight. Either you adapt or perish. However, the success behind this victory lies in the naming and shaming campaign that the CTSP launched at global level and we also exposed the exploitation in interviews with eTransparentem.” 

“We applaud the positive news that workers will be compensated for the exploitation and commend the CTSP for their relentless campaign for migrant workers' rights in Mauritius,” 

says Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2022, the Migrant Resource Center in Mauritius, which is located at the CTSP offices,  launched the Just Good Work Mauritius app, in collaboration with IndustriALL, Anti Slavery International and online clothing brand ASOS. Migrant workers are informed about their rights and can report cases of abuse. The information is accessible in Bangladeshi, English and Malagasy. The union also organizes regular events to help migrant workers to integrate into Mauritian life.
 

Photograph: Shutterstock