Trade unions have held a May Day demonstration today on International Labour Day voicing concerns regarding labour rights.

The May Day demonstration was held on the streets of Male' this afternoon with crowds joining, holding banners and placards expressing concerns about workers' rights. This included messages about workplace safety, low salaries, outsourcing of jobs in the tourism sector, and refusal to pay service charge in dollars to tourism sector employees. 

Maldives Trade Union Congress (MTUC) and several other unions collaborated to organize today's demonstration. 

Speaking at today's demonstration, MTUC President and MP for Kendhoo constituency Mauroof Zakir said that the purpose of the demonstration is to share workers' concerns with the government and relevant authorities. 

Mauroof also read out several demands to the government on behalf of fishermen. 

"We call to grant resort workers two days off every week, we call to halt casual work or contract labour or outsourcing in the tourism sector, when work is outsourced, the rights of several workers are infringed upon and they are deprived of the full amount of salary they are otherwise entitled to," Mauroof said. 

Mauroof said that a further demand is for tourism sector workers to be paid service charge in US dollars. Another call from the demonstrators was to allow men working in the tourism industry to wear beards. 

Fishermen who joined the demonstration were calling for raising the price at which fish is purchased, Mauroof said. 

"We call for the price of a kilo of yellowfin tuna to be maintained between MVR 80 and 100. That is a pledge the government has made," Mauroof said. 

He also called for the fish purchase price by State owned enterprises to be raised. 

The demonstration also raised concerns that the government is planning to let go of general employees citing downsizing to mitigate war impacts. They called on the government to refrain from doing so. 

A teacher who spoke at today's May Day rally said that a major concern for those in their profession is the lack of computers at school for teachers to work on. 

"Teachers have to make lessonplans everyday. They have to prepare tests after every unit is covered, they have to type up soft copies of these tests, marksheets have to be uploaded," they explained. 

Despite this, consecutive governments have failed to provide teachers with the necessary resources, they stated. 

Staff of government offices also held a march today on occasion of Labour Day. The Unions' march criticized this move.