THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAURITIAN EPZ AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR FEMALE WORKERS

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CHAPTER THREE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAURITIAN EPZ AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR FEMALE WORKERS

Introduction

This chapter sets the empirical background to the study. It is made up of three main parts. It begins by providing a brief historical overview of the Island of Mauritius. It then outlines the development and significance of the EPZ therein, focusing more specifically on one of the main transformations which this sector led to: the mass entry of women into paid employment. The third part then unfolds to critically examine through a review of available evidence the extent to which this form of employment can be said to be empowering for local women, given the conditions of work in this sector and more particularly the impact of globalisation on employment and labour standards in this sector.

 The Island of Mauritius3: a brief historical overview

The Island of Mauritius is a small island economy4 of 1865 sq km located in the South West of the Indian Ocean, 800 km east of Madagascar, with a population of about 1.2 million inhabitants. The strategic location of Mauritius on the common trade routes to India and South East Asia led to an attempt at settlement by the Dutch in 1710, although there is some evidence that the first Europeans to have found the island were the Portuguese (Toussaint, 1977). The Dutch were unsuccessful in settling in the island but their legacies were significant. Not only did they introduce sugarcane – from Java – which was to become a pillar of the economy, but they had also named it ‘Mauritius’ after Dutch Prince Maurice Van Nassau.
3 The Island of Mauritius is part of the Republic of Mauritius which also comprises the semi-autonomous Island of Rodrigues and other small island dependencies, Agalega and St Brandon.The focus on the Island of Mauritius is because the EPZ sector is located there.
4 A basic factsheet of the country is provided in the appendix.
In 1715, the French took possession of the island and kick-started its development. Some of the salient features of French occupation were the introduction of slaves to work the sugar cane fields and around this monocrop economy followed the infrastructural and social development of the country. During the Napoleonic wars, the island was also being used as a base by French corsairs to attack British vessels and this led the British to launch an attack and take over the island in 1810 (Moutou, 1996).
The British rule was for strategic purposes and was limited to administration. Although English language became the official administrative language, the French influence remained strong particularly because of the fact that the economy based on cane production was controlled by the Franco-Mauritian planters. However the British administration also brought about several important changes. One such change which had important ramifications for the social, cultural, political, economic and demographic configuration of the island was the abolition of slavery in 1835. The refusal of the newly franchised slaves to work the sugar cane fields for wages led to the mass introduction of indentured labourers from India which to writers such as Tinker (1974) was not much different to slavery. Between 1835 and 1900, the population tripled from about 100 000 to 300 000 (Addison and Hazareesingh, 1993).
Mauritius achieved its independence from British rule in 1968. By that time, several serious causes of concern were identified. It presented the characteristic traits of underdevelopment – rising population, high levels of poverty and unemployment and over-reliance on a single crop. In addition the multiethnic composition of the island was leading to racial strife.
However, over the next 3 decades, Mauritius underwent a spectacular transformation which has been lauded as an economic miracle (see e.g. Lamusse, 1985; Bowman, 1991; Anker et al, 2001). It has in effect evolved from a low-income, heavily agricultural economy mainly based on sugar cane cultivation with a per-capita income of about US $ 700 to a diversified middle-income economy with a per capita income of about US $ 7500 in 2009. There is a broad consensus that the export-oriented strategy which was promoted by the Mauritian Government as from the 1970s was a key element behind the success which has in many ways singled out Mauritius from the rest of Africa (Lall and Wignaraja, 1998; Durbarry, 2001).

The development of the EPZ sector

The promotion of an export-led development strategy was a rational response by the Mauritian Government to the findings of the Meade Report in 1961 who established that the only significant industry at the time ie the sugar industry could not provide enough jobs for a rapidly increasing population (Lamusse, 1995; Kothari and Nababsing, 1996). The outward-looking export-oriented and truly employment generating strategy started with the passing of the EPZ Act in 1970 by the Mauritian Government, followed by a number of policies to facilitate the expansion of exports, liberalise trade and prices and reduce exchange controls.
Right from the outset ie in the early 70s, the Mauritian EPZ sector has been dominated by the Textile and Clothing (TC) sector since over 80% of exports and 90% of employment in the EPZ were concentrated in this sector (Durbarry 2001). Over the course of 3 decades, the Mauritian TC has established itself as the most developed TC industry in Sub-Saharan Africa (EPZDA, 2002) and has arguably ‘compacted in this time period what the industry in Western Europe achieved over almost 200 years and the ‘tigers’ in Asia in almost 50 years’ (Gherzi Report 2000: 2). At the turn of the 21st century, Mauritius was the world’s second largest fully fashioned knitwear producer, the third largest exporter of new wool products and Europe’s fourth largest supplier of T-shirts (Tait, 2002). Table 2 below provides an indication of the evolution of the sector over the last 30 years.
This progress has been all the more remarkable given a number of inherent disadvantages which had the potential to sink the economy before it even took off. In addition to being a tiny island with no indigenous raw materials and relatively remote from major markets5, Mauritius was in fact, as mentioned earlier, being tipped as having all the ingredients for failure6 at the time of its independence from British colonial rule (See Mukonoweshuro, 1991; Subramanian, 2001;
5 Subramanian (2001) estimates that Mauritius is at least 25-30% more distant from world markets than the average African country.
6 In the early 70s, Mauritius displayed all the characteristics of underdevelopment and one of the findings of the Meade Report (1961) was that the country was heading straight into a classic Malthusian Trap. At the time, it was a monocrop economy with all the risks this entails (adverse climatic conditions, currency fluctuations, market access among others); poverty was widespread and was being further fuelled by a soaring populations and rocketing unemployment levels and a latent ethnic tension was prevailing.
Kearney, 1991). A whole gamut of internal and external factors and opportunities has worked in conjunction to attract Foreign Direct Investment in the Mauritian EPZ.
At the local level, the ready availability of a large pool of cheap and docile labour, and the favourable macroeconomic and policy environment have been major pull factors of foreign inward investment (Gibbon, 2000; Durbarry, 2001; Joomun, 2006). Equally important pull factors include the political stability provided by a democratic political system – particularly in comparison with mainland Africa – and the existence of a strong welfare state which promoted cohesion in a pluricultural society (Dommen and Dommen, 1999). Furthermore, the existence of historical and cultural ties with UK and France as well as with China are also widely acknowledged to have successfully worked in synergy both to attract investment as well as obtain preferential market access in Europe (Lim Fat, 1985). In conjunction with the above pull factors there has been a host of favourable external factors which have facilitated the development of the sector. These include in particular the preferential market access to the European Union under the Lome Convention (later the Cotonou Agreement) for African ACP countries and the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA). These have played a major role in attracting investment in this sector mainly from South East Asian TC enterprises from Hong-Kong and Taiwan and which have gradually led to significant market penetration in European and US markets.
A defining phase in its development has been the period 1983 till the early 1990s which has in fact been referred to as the EPZ crusade (Durbarry, 2001) or the clothing boom years (Burn, 1996) for which Mauritius has been seen as a success story of export-oriented industrialization. Employment for the garment sub-sector alone first grew to a significant size within this period increasing from around 20 000 in 1981 to over 80 000 by 1991. Effectively, after a relatively modest start in the 1970s, the sector was rejuvenated in that time period with the implementation of structural adjustment policies as well as the setting up of a broad range of incentives offered by the Government to foreign investors (Kothari and Nababsing, 1996; Hureeram and Little, 2002). While as indicated in Table 2 above, the export-oriented garment sector in the 1990s were characterized by adaptation, resilience and growth both in terms of exports and employment in spite of the gradual liberalization of trade and the increasing competition from low-cost producers, at the turn of the century the sector was hard hit by major changes in the global garment sector, associated with the dismantling of the Multi-Fibre Agreement. These points will be explained in more detail later but before going any further, it is important to note that, similar to export-oriented garment manufacturing elsewhere, one of the most significant outcomes of this employment explosion has been that the labour market scenario was significantly altered as the emerging factories over this time period were absorbing a large pool of hitherto underutilized female labour (Kothari and Nababsing, 1996).

The feminization of EPZ employment

The country has experienced an increased percentage of women in its overall labour force from 25% in 1972 to 35.6% in 2009, with the representation in the EPZ sector hovering around the 70% mark until the 2006. By 2009, however this representation has decreased significantly to about 57% (CSO, 2010). This trend is reflected in Table 3 below which shows the evolution of EPZ employment by gender for selected years. The significant fall in the employment of women in the period post-2000 which I argue is mainly due to the dismantling of the MFA, will be examined in more detail later.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1. Aims and objectives
1.1 Significance of the study
1.2 Preliminary review of literature
1.3 The Mauritian context
1.4 Methodological approach
1.5 Structure of the thesis
CHAPTER TWO: EMPLOYMENT IN EXPORT-PROCESSING ZONES, WOMEN AND EMPOWERMENT: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
2. Introduction
2.1 Theoretical explanations for the feminization of export-oriented employment
2.2 Use of the concept of empowerment in this thesis
2.3 Assessing the linkages between female employment in EPZs and empowerment
2.4 Summary
CHAPTER THREE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAURITIAN EPZ AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR FEMALE WORKERS
3. Introduction
3.1 The Island of Mauritius: A brief historical overview
3.2 The development of the EPZ sector
3.2.1 The feminization of EPZ employment
3.3 The intensification of globalization and EPZ employment
3.3.1 The dismantling of the MFA and its effects on employment
3.3.1.1 The predominance of female workers among the retrenched workers
3.4 Implications of EPZ work for Mauritian female workers
3.5 Summary
CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY
4. Introduction
4.1 Justification for the adoption of a qualitative approach to data collection
4.2 The Primary Data Collection Process
4.2.1 Preliminary Research
4.2.2 Focus Group Discussions with current female EPZ workers
4.2.2.1 Themes for the FGDs
4.2.2.2 Selection of FGD participants
4.2.2.3 Brief profileof FGD participants
4.2.2.4 Profile of the firms from which the participants have been selected
4.2.2.5 Logistics
4.2.3 Semi-Directive Interviews of laid-off female workers
4.2.3.1 The semi-directive interview method
4.2.3.2 Selection of participants
4.2.3.3 Ethical considerations
4.3 Reliability and Validity of Findings and Interpretations
4.4 Summary
CHAPTER FIVE: WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE EPZ AND THE QUESTION OF EMPOWERMENT
5. Introduction
5.1 The work environment
5.2 Day-to-day treatment of workers
5.2.1 Employer-employee relations in the EPZ
5.2.1.1 Size of firm and treatment of workers
5.2.2 Employee-employee relations in the EPZ
5.2.2.1 Malicious supervisors
5.2.2.2 Conflict between fellow workers
5.3 Job security
5.4 Income in the EPZ
5.5 Collective Bargaining
5.6 Overtime work
5.7 Summary
CHAPTER SIX: IMPACT OF FACTORY WORK ON GENDER RELATIONS IN THE HOUSEHOLD
6. Introduction
6.1 The distribution of gender roles
6.1.1 Equality in domestic distribution of household tasks
6.1.2 Caring Responsibilities
6.2 Inequalities in decision making in the household
6.3 Degree of personal freedom
6.3.1 Femmes l’izine
6.3.2 Sexual Revolution
6.3.3 Self-fulfilling prophecies
6.4 Importance of work for the EPZ employee’s identity as a woman
6.5 Summary
CHAPTER SEVEN: ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT FROM EMPLOYMENT: MYTH OR REALITY?
7. Introduction
7.1 Adequacy of earnings
7.2. Disposal of earnings
7.2.1 Distribution of roles in running the household budget
7.2.2 Priorities in the disposal of income
7.2.2.1 Expenditure on self as last priority for women
7.2.2.2 Nature of expenditure by gender
7.2.3 Acceptance of sexism
7.2.4 Importance of income for EPZ women’s material conditions
7.3 Coping strategies
7.3.1 The ‘Mette-Sit’informal lending and borrowing system
7.3.2 Credit system at the local cornershop
7.3.3 Kinship Support
7.3.4 Informal v/s formal
7.4 Summary
CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPERIENCES OF JOB LOSS IN THE EPZ: EMPOWERMENT OR DISEMPOWERMENT?
8. Introduction
8.1 Overview of the socio-economic profile of the respondents
8.1.1 Age group
8.1.2 Factory type
8.1.3 Length of time in employment at their respective factories
8.1.4 Type of occupation in the factory
8.1.5 Educational level
8.1.6 Income background
8.1.7 Marital Status, number of dependents and region
8.1.8 Main differences
8.2 Common experiences of Job Loss from EPZ factories
8.2.1 Financial Impacts
8.2.1.1 Compensation upon termination of employment
8.2.1.2 Deterioration of material living standard
8.2.1.3 Postponment or cancellation of projects
8.2.1.4 Adverse changes in dietary habits
8.2.1.5 Impact upon dependent children
8.2.2 Psychological and Health Impact
8.2.2.1 Lack of preparedness
8.2.2.2 Concern for their household as a source of anxiety
8.2.2.3 Isolation from friends from the factories
8.2.2.4 Health complications
8.2.3 The ability to participate in social life
8.3 Obstacles to women’s integration back in paid employment
8.3.1 Awareness of existing initiatives
8.3.2 Job fairs
8.3.3 Reskilling
8.3.4 Entrepreneurship and retrenched workers
8.4 Gender impacts within the household
8.4.1 Meanings attached to paid employment prior to job loss
8.4.1.1 Some degree of financial autonomy
8.4.1.2 A certain degree of self-development, assertion and freedom
8.4.1.3 Decision-making within the households
8.4.1.4 Limited progress in terms of domestic division of labour
8.4.2 Impact of retrenchment on gender status and roles within the household…….
8.4.2.1 Impacts on self-image and dignity
8.4.2.2 Domestic tension
8.5 Benefits of retrenchment
8.6 Summary
CHAPTER NINE: CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
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