According to a Minivan News report, "Maldives’ Tourism Employees Association (TEAM) has "no right" to make demands for labour rights enshrined in the Employment Act, secretary general of the country's leading resort owners association has said on Saturday.
Sim Ibrahim Mohamed from Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) made the comment after a leaked letter shows he called on the Tourism Ministry to inform resorts that TEAM does not have “any mandate” from the ministry.
The letter, which says TEAM's demands are "unwarranted, unlawful and unnecessary”, also urges the ministry to “caution the media about publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased and defamatory”.
MATI should not resort to bully tactics.
The Maldivian tourism industry has benefited from cheap labour in Maldives. Most of the tourist resort owners and operators have made handsome profits at the expense of the workers because workers rights have never been protected in Maldives.
While the Maldivian Government has taken membership of most the UN organisations, it has failed to take the membership in one of the most important organisation; The International Labour Organization (ILO). ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues. In structure, the ILO is unique among world organizations in that the representatives of the workers and of the employers have an equal voice with those of governments in formulating its policies.
Under the MDP coalition government, the Minister for human resources Hassan Latheef has now confirmed that Maldives would join the ILO before Dec 7th 2008.
We now have the opportunity to address worker issues such as unfair dismissals and refer to labour tribunals.
MATI should get over its arrogant attitude and advocate to give workers their full benefits without pushing them to take mass industrial action through work stoppages.
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3 comments:
just a personal note. i did speak to the reporter but the report does not reflect the spirit of what was discssed and several quotes are incomplete. my statement was to the effect that the organisation in question,called TEAM, was just one ngo among many ,working on rights-based issues,an no more or less important than others and that employers too have rights,just like workers.sim.i.mohamed
hi Sim
Thank you for the clarification.
best regards
m.hilmy
who is MATI,
It is amazing to me that they are going on about the behaviour of the strikers. When has Mati ever taken on constructive engagement with the tourism industry workers or tried to mediate with government on their behalf.
fo the first time a government has held a positive engagement with an industrial action and MAt
i accuses them from its ivory tower at GADHAN,Ooo,o0o Building.
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