The Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 was gazetted on 27 July 2024. It legislates the measures announced in the Minister of Finance’s Budget Speech 2024-2025. This article aims to highlight the key provisions that affect the business community.
Employment
The Right to Disconnect During Unsocial Hours
The Finance Act introduces a worker’s right to disconnect, i.e. to disengage from work and work-related communications (including emails, telephone calls, video calls or other means of sending and receiving messages) during unsocial hours when they are not working. These “unsocial hours” are (i) between 1 p.m. on a Saturday and 6 a.m. on the ensuing Monday, and (ii) between 10 p.m. on a weekday and 6 a.m. on the ensuing day.
However, the worker may be required to work during those unsocial hours due to situations of emergency or where those hours correspond to the working hours in the market country served. In those circumstances, the worker will be entitled to a disturbance allowance in addition to their normal remuneration. The disturbance allowance is equivalent to the worker’s hourly wage for every hour of work performed during the unsocial hours. These provisions would apply irrespective of a worker’s level of salary.
The disturbance allowance is not a new measure. It is already provided for in regulations made by the Minister of Labour in September 2020, except that those regulations provide that “unsocial hours” do not include the working hours of a worker in the ICT/BPO sector whose working hours correspond to the working hours in the market country served. However, the amendment brought by the Finance Act suggests that the disturbance allowance will henceforth be paid even to workers in the ICT/BPO sector.
Vacation Leave
The Workers’ Rights Act came into force on 24 October 2019. Starting from that date, a worker who remains in continuous employment with the same employer for a period of at least 5 consecutive years is entitled to a vacation leave of not more than 30 days, for every period of 5 consecutive years. This is already provided in the legislation since 2019. As such, a number of workers who have stayed with their employer since then may be eligible to the vacation leave in October 2024. This provision applies to workers earning not more than MUR 600,000 in annual basic salary.
The Finance Act has amended the Workers’ Rights Act by adding the following provisions regarding vacation leave.
- The vacation leave must be for a minimum period of 6 consecutive days.
- A worker must apply for the vacation leave at least 3 months in advance, except in special circumstances.
- An employer must approve the application for the vacation leave, except if there are reasonable business grounds, i.e. (a) the inability or impracticability to reorganize working arrangements of existing workers, and (b) a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customers’ demand.
Where an employer rejects an application on reasonable business grounds, the worker and the employer may agree on another period when the vacation leave is to be taken. Failing such an agreement, the employer must pay remuneration in lieu of the vacation leave. Such payment is to be made in the month in which the leave was due to start.
Work from Home in Extreme Weather Conditions
The Finance Act introduces specific conditions in the Workers’ Rights Act for an employer to require a worker to work from home during a period of extreme weather conditions such as cyclonic conditions where a warning class III or IV is issued, an order is issued to remain indoors during a period of heavy or torrential rain or a safety bulletin is issued by the Mauritius Meteorological Services. In those situations, the employer may require the worker to work from home if there is no (i) risk to their life or that of their family, (ii) risk of injury, (iii) risk of their residence being damaged or (iv) electricity or communication breakdown.
Further, prior to the amendment brought by the Finance Act, the Workers’ Rights Act required employers to pay an allowance equal to 3 times the hourly wage of a worker when they work from home during these extreme weather condition. The Finance Act has reduced that remuneration to twice their hourly wage. This requirement to pay additional remuneration applies in respect of workers earning less than MUR 600,000 in annual basic salary.
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