Ministry of Economic Development and Productivity & Regional Development

Results of a tracer study on ex-workers of St. Antoine
and The Mount sugar factories
October - November 1997

Introduction

The Ministry of Economic Development and Regional Co-operation and the Central Statistical Office conducted a survey in October 1997 to ascertain the socio-economic situation of ex-workers of the defunct Mount and St. Antoine sugar factories. It is to be noted that St. Antoine closed down in March 1994 and The Mount in May 1995. Workers made redundant were compensated in cash and land although in the case of The Mount the land compensation has just been effected (November 1997).

2. Target population

The target population for the study was to include all ex-workers of the two factories. However, since the closures had occurred 2 to 3 years earlier some difficulties were encountered in compiling a proper frame of respondents. Several organisations, including the Sugar Authority, the Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations, the Plantation House and St. Antoine Sugar Estate were contacted, and after reconciliation of the various lists made available, it was possible to prepare the final frame which comprised 451 ex-workers (of whom 256 from St. Antoine and 195 from the Mount).

3. Survey questionnaire

The questionnaire for the survey was designed to obtain information mainly on the ex-worker himself, who was considered as the respondent. However, a few basic questions, in particular on economic activity, were asked about all members of his household in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the socio-economic conditions in which he usually lives.

4. Fieldwork

The available lists of ex-workers dated back to the time of closure of the respective factories and the addresses therein were often vague and in terms of the village only. Furthermore, although most ex-workers were located in the north of the country, they were spread over a large area. Many had moved from their original address and had to be traced to their new residence. Others could not be readily contacted because they were either engaged in social activities or working Saturdays and Sundays owing to the harvest season. Hence, a lot of time was spent in travelling and establishing effective contact with respondents.

The fieldstaff consisted of 2 Supervisors and 9 Interviewers who took about six week-ends (from mid-September to end-October 1997) to complete the survey.

5. Data processing

The completed questionnaires were coded by the Central Statistical Office and the data processing was done by the Central Information Systems Division.

6. Survey results

(i) Response

The number of respondents who could be effectively interviewed was 409 out of the 451 potential interviewees. The remaining 42 consisted of 10 ex-workers who had died since closure, 13 who had moved to unknown addresses, 9 who had refused to give information and 10 who could not be contacted after several attempts mainly because they were working late even on Saturdays and Sundays owing to the harvest season. Table 1 shows a breakdown of the outcome by factory.

It is to be noted that the response rate was 93% if those who died since closure are excluded. This is considered to be very good given the difficulties encountered in tracing respondents and establishing personal contact. However, the results of the survey should be treated with caution since all fieldstaff had the clear impression that many respondents were overstating difficulties and understating the truth concerning their conditions of living, in particular household income.

Table 1 - Target population by factory and survey outcome

(ii) Household characteristics

All respondents were male (as expected). Most of the respondents (91%) were also the head of their household (Table 2), and presumably had family maintenance responsibilities.

Table 2 - Respondents by status within household

The total number of persons (including respondents) living in the 409 households covered by the survey was 1772 (964 males and 808 females), which gives an average household size of 4.33. The composition of this average household by type of member is shown in Table 3.

Table 3 - Household composition

The average number of (usually) employed and unemployed persons per household (including respondents) is estimated at 1.52 and 0.46 respectively, giving a total of 1.98 economically active persons. The unemployment rate is estimated at around 23% from the survey data (unadjusted for overstatement). These figures are compared with the results of the 1995 Labour Force Survey in Table 4. Strictly speaking, differences in targetted population, concepts and time reference periods do not warrant such a comparison. In spite of this it is clear that overstatement of unemployment and understatement of employment may be affecting the tracer study more than the Labour Force Sample Survey.

Table 4 - Comparison of tracer study data on economic activity with those of 1995 Labour Force Survey

Table 5 shows the usual activity of all persons (including respondents) by sex and age-group.

Table 5 - Usual activity of all members of the household by sex and age-group

(iii) Household income

The average income per household is estimated at around Rs 6,100 (compared to a figure of around Rs 10,200 from the 1996-97 Household Budget Survey). As mentioned earlier, this figure is an underestimate since all fieldstaff had the conviction that income was systematically being under-reported. There were 12 respondents who squarely refused to give information on income. In spite of these shortcomings it is interesting to note that 15% of households had an income of Rs 10,000 or more (Table 6). It is also estimated that 45% of total household income was brought in by

Table 6 - Distribution of households by income

the respondent and 44% by other members of the household. Transfer incomes such as pensions accounted for 8% of total household income

(iv) Age distribution of respondents

The age distribution of respondents at the time of interview was as shown in Table 7. It is to be noted that 184 (45%) were above 50 years of age.

Table 7 - Age distribution of respondents

(v) Monthly salary of respondents

The distribution of respondents by monthly salary at the time of job termination is shown in Table 8. It is observed that 21% had a reported salary ranging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000, 51% between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000, and 27% reported salaries above Rs 4,000.

Table 8 - Monthly salary of respondents at time of job termination

(vi) Activity status of respondents immediately after closure

Out of the 409 respondents, 55 retired from economic activity on closure of the factories. Another 75 immediately took up another job and were still with that job at the time of interview. An additional 24 who also immediately took up another job had changed jobs since then. Of the remaining 255 respondents, 80 found work after a job search of up to 6 months while 175 reported having spent more than 6 months looking for a job. Table 9 shows the activity status of respondents on closure of each factory separately.

The occupation of those respondents who did find a job after closure was generally the same as the one they had at the factory before closure. The main occupational categories were building trade workers, metal and machinery workers, machine operators and assemblers, drivers and mobile plant operators, and services elementary occupations such as messengers and watchmen.

Table 9 - Activity status of respondents on factory closure

(vii) Difficulties faced by respondents since closure

Table 10 shows the main problems faced by respondents since the termination of their job at the defunct factories. Both the number and percentage of respondents encountering these problems are given. It is to be noted that a person could report more than one type of problem. The percentage for each type is obtained by dividing the number of respondents reporting that problem by the total number of respondents (which is 183 for The Mount, 226 for St. Antoine and 409 for the total). All the figures given are as reported by respondents and it is difficult to establish whether the closure of the factories was the direct cause of the problems encountered in each case.

(a) No problems. As regards the difficulties faced by the respondent since closure, 83 out of the 409 interviewees (i.e. 20%) replied that they had faced no problem whatsoever. Sixty-four (64) respondents considered the closure to have been a good thing for them; various reasons were given, but the one most frequently mentioned was that the cash and land compensation had opened up better economic opportunities for them.

(b) Accommodation. Only 31 ex-workers (i.e. 8%) reported that they were required to vacate their lodgings after closure. (It must be noted that ex-workers of The Mount reported that they will obtain their plot of land by the end of this year, and will be given a delay of 2 years within which to vacate any estate dwelling presently occupied by them).

(c) Job search. For those who had to look for new jobs the main difficulties were related to age and job experience. In fact 128 (31%) reported their advanced age as being a hindrance to employment and 144 (35%) reported that jobs in which they were experienced were not available.

(d) Family maintenance. A total of 219 (54%) respondents said that they had inadequate finance for basic maintenance. However, the general reluctance to provide reliable information on the income of respondents as well as other household members implies that this could be an overstatement. In any case, 49 (12%) of ex-workers said that other members of their household had to take up jobs to make up for the shortfall in family income resulting from the loss of their own job. Furthermore, 83 (20%) reported that future plans for themselves and other family members had been disrupted.

(e) Personal problems. The number of respondents who reported having had physical and mental health problems and/or increased tendency to smoke and drink was 133 (33%).

Table 10 - Number and percentage of respondents reporting specific problems faced since closure

(viii) Current activity status of respondents

The current activity status of respondents was assessed by a question on what they had been doing during the week preceding the date of interview. Table 11 shows that 231 (56%) were employees, 52 (13%) were self-employed, 64 (16%) were inactive (retired, etc.) while 62 (15%) were unemployed (i.e. not working and looking for work).

Table 11 - Current activity status of respondents

(ix) Utilisation of cash compensation

Most respondents utilised their cash compensation in more than one way, as expected. Table 12 shows the number of cases in which each type of expenditure was mentioned. The percentage reporting a given expenditure type is calculated on the total number of respondents (183 for The Mount, 226 for St. Antoine and 409 for the total). Family maintenance was reported by 249 respondents (61%); savings and fixed deposits by 217 (53%) and house construction, purchase or improvement by 195 (48%). There were 115 respondents (28%) who spent at least part of their cash compensation on social activities such as marriages, festivals and parties.

Table 12 - Utilisation of cash compensation

At the time of interview, 175 out of the 409 respondents (43%) stated that their cash compensation had been exhausted. The figure for The Mount was 57 out of 183 (31%) and for St. Antoine 118 out of 226 (52%). Part of the reason for a higher figure for St. Antoine is that it closed down about one year earlier than The Mount.

(x) Utilisation of land compensation. Since a large number of ex-workers from The Mount reported that they had not yet received their plot of land, the data are meaningful for St. Antoine only. Table 13 shows that 104 respondents (46%) were still undecided as to how they would dispose of their land while another 25 (11%) were keeping it for their children’s use. In 54 cases (24%) the land was being used for cultivation and in 18 cases (8%) for house construction. Twenty-five respondents (11%) had already sold their plot at the time of interview.

Table 13 - Disposal of land compensation

7. Vulnerable groups

It has not been possible, from the survey findings, to draw up a clear profile of any specific vulnerable group among the ex-workers of The Mount and St. Antoine. The main reasons are the deliberate misreporting on crucial variables like economic activity and income, and the exaggeration of difficulties attributable to redundancy. However, raking the data for the 175 respondents whose cash compensation had been exhausted indicates that between 50 to 75 respondents who had used part of their cash compensation for family maintenance, also reported facing difficulties to maintain their family, and/or having health problems (with or without an increased tendency to smoking and drinking). It can therefore be surmised that between 12 to 18% of the 409 respondents may have problems in maintaining a reasonable standard of living. However this does not necessarily imply a direct causal relationship between the closure of the factories and the reported difficulties

8. Conclusion

As can be expected in surveys of this kind, most respondents tended to overstate difficulties and understate the truth concerning their conditions of living. The general impression of fieldstaff is that a large majority of ex-workers of The Mount and St. Antoine were coping well. In fact 20% of the 409 respondents replied that they had faced no problem whatsoever as a result of closure of the factories. Some 16% even considered the closure to have been a good thing for them since the cash and land compensation had opened up better opportunities for them. On the other hand there could be some 12 to 18% who may be facing financial and health problems, although these may not be attributable exclusively to closure of the factories.

Ministry of Economic Development and Regional Development
Central Statistical Office
PORT LOUIS

December 1997

Last Updated 12 May, 2000
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