Key points:
- Minister Ali Ihsan affirms that workers form the backbone of every national achievement
- Government commits to full enforcement of the Industrial Relations Act and Occupational Safety and Health Act
- Backlog of cases at the Labour Relations Authority to be resolved with integrity and fairness
MALÉ — Marking International Workers’ Day, the Minister of Homeland Security, Labour and Technology, Ali Ihsan, has pledged that all pending complaints at the Labour Relations Authority (LRA) will be examined with integrity and resolved through just outcomes, signalling a renewed government commitment to labour rights in the Maldives.
The Minister made the remarks while concluding a march organised by the Ministry in collaboration with various institutions to commemorate May Day — a date observed in more than 80 countries worldwide as a tribute to the labour movement and its historic struggle for the eight-hour workday, originally rooted in the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago.
A Shift in Tone
Minister Ihsan noted that Workers’ Day had historically been commemorated in the Maldives as a day of confrontation between workers and the state. He framed the current government’s approach as a departure from that adversarial tradition, pledging instead to stand alongside workers in securing their rights. “Even when the government took office, there were many cases piled up at the Labour Relations Authority — cases submitted by both workers and employers. We will examine those cases with integrity and bring just solutions. Ensuring that a safe, secure and dignified work environment has been established is the government’s goal,” the Minister said. His reference to a “safe, secure and dignified work environment” echoes the language of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Decent Work Agenda, which has guided global labour policy since 1999 and rests on four pillars: employment creation, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue.
The Legal Framework
The Maldives’ principal labour legislation is the Employment Act (Law No. 2/2008), which establishes minimum standards on working hours, leave entitlements, termination, and dispute resolution. The Act has been amended several times, most notably in 2020 to introduce a statutory minimum wage — a long-awaited reform that took effect in January 2022 for the private sector. The Minister singled out two further pieces of legislation for full enforcement this year:
The Industrial Relations Act, which governs the relationship between employers, employees, and trade unions, including the right to organise and bargain collectively. This area has long been a gap in Maldivian law; although the Constitution guarantees freedom of association under Article 30, the country has yet to ratify two of the ILO’s eight fundamental conventions — Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) and Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949). Full enforcement of a domestic Industrial Relations Act would mark a significant step toward bringing the Maldives into closer alignment with international norms.
The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, which sets out duties on employers to prevent workplace injury and illness. This complements ILO Convention No. 155 on Occupational Safety and Health (1981) and Convention No. 187 on the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health (2006). In 2022, the ILO added a safe and healthy working environment to its list of fundamental principles and rights at work — a recognition that has reshaped global expectations on OSH compliance.
Migrant Labour and the Economic Backbone
The Minister emphasised that both Maldivian and expatriate workers are the backbone of the national economy, and that every success the country has achieved rests on their labour. The acknowledgement is significant in a country where migrant workers — primarily from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal — make up a substantial share of the workforce, particularly in construction, tourism and domestic work.
Migrant labour conditions have drawn international scrutiny in recent years, with reports from the ILO and the United States State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report flagging concerns over wage theft, passport confiscation, and unregulated recruitment practices. The Maldives ratified the Forced Labour Convention (No. 29) in 2013 and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105) in 2016, but enforcement remains a work in progress.
The Minister conceded that “many things that needed to be done to ensure workers’ rights had slipped from our hands,” but said this year would be one in which important laws and regulations are finally enforced.
What Comes Next
Clearing the LRA backlog will be an early test of the government’s commitments. The Authority, established under the Employment Act, serves as the primary forum for resolving individual employment disputes — and a functioning, timely complaints mechanism is widely considered the foundation of any credible labour rights regime. Whether the Ministry can pair its rhetorical shift with measurable enforcement outcomes will determine how this May Day is remembered.
