The event was attended by the minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Satish Faugoo and PPS of the region, Pratibhah Bholah and Balkissoon Hookoom, member of Parliament(MP).
The aim is to implement the recommendations advocated by the ‘Multi Annual Adaptation Strategy’ (MAAS).
Its implementation follows the announcement in 2004 of a 36 per cent drop in sugar prices paid to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, causing a substantial decrease in income from the sugar industry.
Developed in 2006 jointly by government and stakeholders in the sugar industry, the MAAS mainly aimed at defining a roadmap for major restructuring of the Mauritian sugar industry to break this deadlock.
The voluntary retirement offer was made to 362 employees in category A, that is men aged between 50 and 60 years and women between 45 and 60 years.
The plan comprises two phases. The first is the financial compensation paid to the recipients as a lump sum. It represents two months of salary per year of service and the second, seven perches of land for each beneficiary with all the necessary infrastructure and facilities on the sites proposed and agreed by the parties.