Ending someone's employment in Mauritius follows one of two entirely different procedures, and the Workers' Rights Act 2019 treats them as separate regimes rather than variations on a theme. Terminating one worker for cause is an individual, disciplinary process. Reducing the workforce for economic reasons is a collective negotiation that has to happen before the Redundancy Board, not after. Confusing the two — or skipping a step in either — is the single most common reason a termination that was factually justified still fails.
Notice and reason are the floor, not the whole test
Section 63 sets the baseline: notice of termination must be at least 30 days, verbal or written, and an employer must state the reason at the time of notifying the worker. Either party may pay in lieu of notice instead. None of that is optional, but none of it is sufficient either — section 64(1) makes a termination void regardless of notice given if the real reason is a protected one: the worker's race, sex, pregnancy, religion, trade union activity, or raising a genuine complaint against the employer, among others. Getting the notice period right does not cure a termination for the wrong reason.
Dismissal for misconduct has a hearing built into the timeline
Section 64(2) sets a strict sequence: the employer must notify the worker of the charge within 10 days of becoming aware of the alleged misconduct, give the worker an oral hearing (or a written answer followed by an oral hearing) on at least 7 days' notice, and then effect the termination within 7 days of that hearing. The worker is entitled to be assisted by a union or legal representative, and any admission the employer obtains from the worker outside that hearing is not admissible. Critically, the employer must also be unable, in good faith, to take any other course of action. Miss any one of these steps and the dismissal can fail on procedure alone — regardless of whether the misconduct actually happened.
Poor performance follows its own, similar procedure
Section 64(6) mirrors the misconduct procedure for performance-based terminations: the worker must be given at least 7 days' notice to answer the case against them at a hearing, the employer must show no other reasonable course of action was available, and termination must follow within 7 days of the hearing. A single poor appraisal is rarely enough on its own — it is the documented process around it that the Act actually tests.
Redundancy is a negotiation, not a notice
Reducing the workforce is governed separately, under section 72, and only applies to employers with 15 or more workers or an annual turnover of at least MUR 25 million. Before anyone is let go, the employer must first negotiate with the recognised trade union or workers' representatives on ways to avoid the reduction — restricting recruitment, retiring workers past retirement age, cutting overtime, shortening hours, retraining, or redeploying within a group. Only where that negotiation fails does the employer notify the Redundancy Board in writing, together with a statement showing cause, at least 30 days before the intended reduction. Skipping the negotiation step, or the Board notification, makes the entire reduction "deemed unjustified" under section 72(7) — irrespective of how genuine the economic case is.
Getting it wrong is expensive either way
Where a termination is found unjustified, a worker with at least 12 months' continuous service is entitled to severance allowance of three months' remuneration for every 12 months employed, pro-rated for part years, calculated on the higher of the worker's last month's pay or their average over the preceding 12 months. A worker can choose reinstatement instead by registering a complaint within 15 days of termination. In a redundancy specifically, the Redundancy Board — which must conclude its proceedings within 60 days — can order reinstatement with back pay or the same severance rate; and even where it finds the reduction justified, the worker is still owed 30 days' wages in lieu of notice. There is no scenario in the Act where getting the procedure wrong is free.
Sources
- Workers' Rights Act 2019 (Act 20 of 2019), sections 63, 64, 69, 69A, 70, 72 and 75 — Laws of Mauritius.
- Ministry of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training, A Consolidated Version of the Workers' Rights Act 2019 (as at 9 August 2025).