GCRF_NF127 A capabilities assessment of Covid-19 changes to the Workers' Rights Act in Mauritius:implications for domestic and migrant workers

The COVID-19 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 was passed by the Government of Mauritius in May 2020 and will be reviewed in December 2021. Landmark changes were made to the Workers' Rights Act (WRA) 2019 which are impacting both domestic and migrant workers. The hardest hit are workers in tourism and hospitality, textile factories and the informal economy. Examples include reduced compensation, withholding of workers'annual leave, facilitation of justified termination of workers' contracts and exemption from negotiations with workers' organisations (unions) by employers prior to reduction of the workforce (Appleby, 2020). Public policies are critical in providing an environment for the development of capabilities and freedom of choice. We use a capabilities approach to assess the impact of the amended WRA on workers, their opportunity set and their freedom to lead lives they value. We will collect survey data from 1200 domestic and migrant workers from Bangladesh and conduct 50 semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders to produce evidence-based datasets for the co-development of a policy brief and detailed report in order to inform the Government's review in December 2021.