Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Johanne Prosper
Published on 2024-02-24 13:00:51
The Ministry of Finance has decided to summon the leaders of trade union confederations for Tuesday in the context of the budget consultations scheduled for next Thursday. In a letter sent Wednesday afternoon by the Ministry of Finance to the unions, it is stated that the said meeting will take place at 1pm in the New Conference Room of the Government House in Port Louis. The trade union confederations are asked to be represented by a maximum of three members for this Pre-budget Consultative Meeting.
“As customary, Dr the Hon. Renganaden Padayachy, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, will hold consultative meetings with all relevant stakeholders in context of the forthcoming Budget Exercise 2024-2025. You are kindly invited to attend a pre-budget consultative meeting to be chaired by the Hon. Minister on Tuesday 27 February 2024 as from 13 00 hrs in the New Conference Room, Government House, Port Louis,” the ministry’s letter states. Trade union leaders are busy finalizing the preparation of their submissions to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance no later than March 15. However, trade unionists are surprised by the timing of this meeting, as they had nearly three weeks left to submit their documents at the time of receiving the summons.
In a statement at the end of the week, Haniff Peerun, president of the Mauritius Labour Congress (MLC), said he was unsure why the ministry decided to summon trade union leaders “in a rush, as we have until March 15 to submit our submissions.” In fact, he makes assumptions: “we think the government’s agenda has changed for political reasons, we do not know. In any case, there are a number of trade union federations that have not yet finalized their submissions due to the bad weather prevailing. Anyway, it seems that the government’s agenda has changed. We still have our ideas, which we will not prevail upon during the Pre-budget Consultative Meeting.”
The president of the Federation of Parastatal Bodies and Other Unions (FPBOU), Deepak Benydin, agrees. “We believe that the government’s agenda has changed. We will know the answer next Tuesday,” the trade unionist affirms. Trade union leaders are currently in consultations with their members in various sectors. They are also conducting field visits to finalize their submissions in preparation for the last Padayachy budget under the current mandate.
Read the original article(French) on Le Mauricien
