By IPS Correspondents
PORT LOUIS, Jul 22 2008 (IPS)

In this era of technological progress people should be working less, not more, says Ashok Subron.

Women working nightshift at the Princess Tuna Manufacturing Company at Riche-Terre near Port Louis, Mauritius. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

The council wants to ‘‘sensitise’’ workers to make themselves available and turn Mauritius into a ‘‘24-seven economy’’ where all sectors of the economy work around the clock, without stopping. The phrase ‘‘24-seven’’ refers to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Says Subron, ‘‘human beings are not machines. We cannot just make people work because we like to. Nature has created day for people to work, followed by night for rest. If we work ‘24-seven’, it will change this natural law.’’

Some people are already working nightshifts in sectors such as health, police and fire services as well as in the hotel industry, the textile and clothing sector and other manufacturing industries.

‘‘Do we know anything about the health consequences for those people who have been working nightshifts for so many years? No, because no study has ever been carried out,’’ Subron says. ‘‘Our society cannot only operate according to the logic of capitalist and market production,’’ he insists.

But the Human Resource Development Council is determined to get the southern African island state’s workforce to face the challenges of a changing economy.

‘‘It’s the economy itself that is demanding such a change because of the move from agriculture to manufacturing and services, such as tourism,’’ explains Vinod Seegoolam, director of the council.

To facilitate the change, night transport and security are being provided. Some bus companies are already offering services in the main towns until midnight while certain supermarkets stay open until midnight. Closed-circuit television is being installed in the main centres of the island.

Since the economy is becoming oriented towards services, it cannot afford to close shop at the end of the day and still be competitive on the world market. ‘‘We cannot stop production,’’ Seegoolam emphasises.

However, he has given the assurance that no worker will be called upon to work 24 hours a day. They will work the normal eight hours work day and be paid overtime.

Only the times will change as economic sectors will request as many workers as possible to work night shifts, he says. Mauritius requires a flexible, adaptable workforce which can work around the clock.

Emerging sectors – such as business processing outsourcing, tourism, information and communication technology and trade – are experiencing difficulties in recruiting workers to work nightshifts.

Some have brought in people from Bangladesh while others are planning to recruit people from the rest of Africa.

‘‘We have no choice,’’ says Bangladeshi factory worker Abdool Kazi. ‘‘We have come to work here. They are offering night shifts and we have to take it.’’ To him and other foreigners, earning an income is paramount.

Some 36,000 foreigners are working in textiles and other manufacturing industries; in tuna fisheries; and in the construction industry. Foreigners are also employed at small enterprises like bakeries in remote places while others work as gardeners for local farmers.

Seegoolam feels strongly that Mauritians should not be employed while foreigners find work. Officially, some 45,000 local people are jobless. However, many of them are working in the informal sector.

The time has come, he insists, for Mauritians to change their attitude towards working nocturnal hours. ‘‘If they don’t, foreigners will take their jobs and investors will pack up and leave the island for countries with abundant labour power.’’

The ‘‘24-seven economy’’ will create three or four times more jobs in the island state. The living conditions of the population will improve, Seegoolam argues.

Mookeshwarsing Gopal, managing director at EZGO Enterprise Ltd., adds that ‘‘employers would be able to plan their work better. Production and sales would go up and the effect of absenteeism will be reduced. Workers will get better wages, will be more ‘flexible’ and have more time available for their families.’’

He regards the success of the textile and clothing industry during the past four decades as the result of the ‘‘24-seven’’ system that has enabled it to meet the challenges it has faced. A ‘‘24-seven economy’’ is the only way to stay competitive in the world market, attract more investment, create more jobs and improve the quality of life of the population.

The unemployed do not agree. Salim Chotoye, a young man living in Port Louis, finds it better to earn a living by selling luxury goods in the streets of the capital than working night shifts in a call centre or a tuna processing plant.

Another hawker, Marday Kistnah, agrees: ‘‘Working at night is unpleasant, which is why I am still unemployed. I’ll wait for a job, even a minor one, in the public or private sector. But working hours should be during the daytime.’’

Reshma Ramsamy from Triolet, a village in the north of the island, has a higher school certificate. She told IPS that she faces gender discrimination at home as her parents do not want her to work nightshift. ‘‘Women do not work at night,’’ they regularly remind her.

Such is the case with many families, particularly of Indian origin, in Mauritius. Most of the women who work nightshifts in the textile, clothing and other manufacturing industries are from divorced parents, or themselves divorced, or living alone.

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