Tania Diolle: “Harassment on women goes beyond the workplace”

This Sunday, we celebrate Labour Day, in commemoration of workers rights. The public holiday, associated with May 1st, is the fruit of the struggle led by late Dr Maurice Curé, a labour rights activist. His fight led Dr Curé to create the Labour Party which would later lead the fight for the country’s independence from colonial rule.

Over the years, however, political parties have taken hold of this day to hold their traditional political meetings. Trade unions have long campaigned for Labour Day to be free from political activities. In this context, News on Sunday, in its endeavour to delve deeper into this struggle, met Tania Diolle, Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Mauritius. She provides her views on the contribution of women and their roles in today’s labour force. What is your assessment of the women workforce in the labour market? I think that some progress has been made. However, women remain the most vulnerable segment of the population, as pointed out by the last World Bank report on Poverty and Inequality. Have women broken the glass ceiling to reach equal work for equal pay? I think that this takes time, as we are talking about overcoming several generations of inequality. The change in legislation and structures still have to be followed with the appropriate change in mindset and way of life. A lack of job opportunities and a regressing economy usually works against equality in general. How far the vertical mobility of women within the work place has affected social stability – as a wife – mother and homemaker? Unfortunately, I am not a gender expert but I have an opinion on this issue. I think that having women in the work place implies several changes regarding the household and how the family lives. It is just a matter of compensating for the gaps that this might create and take advantage of all the gains that it brings to the family. Talking about social instability is too much because society is a dynamic concept and it will always be subject to changes. However, these changes in the societal culture have to be accompanied by appropriate policies and adjustments in the mindset and expectations of women’s role and contribution. Is there any change to be brought in our labour laws for a better place for women at work? A lot of progress has been made concerning this issue but there is still room for improvement. I think that any law which allows for the unequal treatment of workers has to be changed, as it will always affect women’s conditions at work. It is always a mixture of appropriate laws and change in societal expectations on women. How big an issue is harassment at work for women? I went through a few reports regarding this issue in Mauritius. Harassment on women goes beyond the workplace and is even seen on the streets. As a woman professional, I can affirm that it is still a reality. I think that in some work places, it takes place in a very crude way. In others, it is more subtle. For example, when the expectations for promotion are not clear. When there is room for arbitrariness in decision making, this type of unethical behaviour from the most powerful will always exist. Hence the reason why equal opportunity implies clear procedures and evaluation of the employee’ performance. The rules cannot change on a case to case basis and the exceptional cases must be made known to one and all.

History of Labour Day

Labour Day, or International Workers' Day, is celebrated every year on 1st May. It is a national public holiday in Mauritius. Labour Day originates from the United States labour union movement in the late 19th century, particularly the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours of work per day. In those days, work was tough and employees had to work 12 to16 hours per day. In 1884, the Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions, in the USA, passed a resolution that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labour from and after 1st May 1886.”

Dr Maurice Curé’s struggle

In Mauritius, Labour Day was celebrated for the first time in 1938, thanks largely to the efforts of Dr Maurice Curé and the Labour Party. This first labour day celebration in the then British colony took place at the Champ de Mars and was attended by 35,000 workers and some small planters. According to a local newspaper of the period, the last time that so many Mauritians had gathered in Port Louis, for such a large political rally, was in the days of Dr Eugène Laurent and his Action Libérale during the early twentieth century. In May 1939, at another public rally in Port Louis, Dr Maurice Curé, founder and president of the Labour Party, spoke in creole and in the name of the Mauritian working class, demanded that the colonial authorities decree the first of May a public holiday in the island. On that particular day, in Champ de Mars, over 15,000 workers gathered to celebrate Labour Day. Unfortunately, Governor Bede Clifford refused to carry out the request of Dr Curé and of the Labour Party. As a result, the workers of Mauritius would have to wait an entire decade before such a public holiday was approved by the local British administration. In April 1949, several months after the historic first general elections of August 1948, Guy Rozemont, the leader of the Labour Party and an elected member of the Legislative Council, actively pushed for the 1st May to become a public holiday. Rozemont, with the consent of the other members of the Legislative Assembly such as Sookdeo Bissoondoyal and Governor Sir Hillary Blood, was able to pass a motion to that effect with no opposition. On the 1st May 1950, Labour Day was celebrated for the first time as an official public holiday in the British colony of Mauritius. During the early 1950s, the first of May became even more popular. In 1952, around 50,000 Mauritian workers gathered in Port Louis. It was one of the largest public gatherings in our island’s history. It became evident to many workers that after the long and arduous years of struggle during the 1930s and 1940s, the Mauritian working class was finally being given recognition.