Talking Point

The Decision

Immediately after meeting them, the president telephoned me and instructed me to do the following: ensure that the resort staff are fully included within the regime of rights created by chapter four of the Employment Act; there be no exception on the 48 hour working week; there be no exception on the 30 minute break every five hours; there be no exception on the break for prayers or 15 minutes every four hours; safari vessels be included within the definition of resorts and staff on those vessels be given equal treatment as those on the resorts.

The Change

When those staff met me, my work was cut out for me. I conveyed those instructions to the delegation and told them that those instructions issued by the president have effectively overturned the earlier government policy on creating the three exceptions mentioned earlier.

The Mishap

I also made it clear that it was never the intention of the government to exclude resort workers from the entire regime of rights created by chapter four of the employment legislation - that the matter is nothing beyond an oversight.

It has arisen from attempting to create cross references between two crucial sections of the law - that instead of excluding a list of people from one section of the law, the language used in the chapeau had excluded that list of people from an entire chapter.

The Remedy

The current bill before the parliament is there to bring the resort staff within the regime of rights, and the only place where opinion has been divided is to keep or not to keep those three exceptions.

However the issue is dead now, since the president has intervened to overrule that and to ensure that the full regime of rights be made available without any exception.

There is no reason to dwell on the matter any longer, and keep taking the issue up of being excluded from the rights created by chapter four. The issue has been taken up by the government and rectified to the satisfaction of all petitioners.

The Passage

With this new policy towards resort staff, members linked to the government would not vote to accept anything less than that. Although the government may find it to be a challenge to secure 26 votes for this proposal, it must be known that without the support of members linked to the government, no proposal put forward by another would pass through the parliament either.

The Story

The meeting with the resort staff enlightened me to a host of issues they face as workers, and human beings. These stories have never been told. I spent nearly two hours listening to the hardships they face. Trust me, they have some genuine concerns, and we must all listen to them.

On a different post, I will try to summarize some of those stories.