Trade unions have warned Government to either pay a uniform salary compensation of Rs 617 and respond to the social and economic problems or face a general strike  that will stop all economic activities through-out the island.

Four days after the National Pay Council submitted its recommendations to the Minister of Finance, the leaders of the six main TU confederations, Tulsiraj Benydin, Cassam Kurreeman, Radhakrisha Sadien, Reeaz Chuttoo, Ashok Subron and Atma Shanto, expressed the wish to meet the Minister of Finance, Rama Sithanen before the budget, scheduled to be presented today, Friday May 22.

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the salary adjustment issue and ask Sithanen to reject the NPC proposals. The NPC had proposed a salary compensation of 5,1%, some Rs194, for those earning up to Rs 3,800 per month, Rs200 for those earning between Rs3,801 and Rs12,000 but no compensation for those earning more than Rs 12,000.

“We want to express our deep dissatisfaction with the compensation quantum proposed by the NPC. We want the Minister of Finance to fix the meeting as soon as possible,” said the President of the State Employees Federation (SEF) Radhakrishna Sadien.

The National Trade Union Confederation, the Mauritius Trade Union Congress, the Confédération Syndicale de Gauche, the Private Sector Workers Conferederation, the Confederation of Independent Trade Union and the Mauritius Labour Congress have given till Friday, May 22, for the Minister of Finance to consider their proposals if he wants to prevent a national strike movement.

In an open letter addressed to the Minister of Finance, the TU confederations said that the ultimatum “will show the desire of the population to refuse immobility when it is exploited to prevent the monopoly of everything by the high class and political autocracy”.