The government is yet to confirm whether further talks will be held with the Fiji Trades Union Congress after Fiji’s failure to submit a joint implementation report to the International Labour Organization.
FTUC General Secretary, Felix Anthony did not sign off on the Fiji report presented by the government and the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation in Geneva. Anthony presented a separate FTUC report to the ILO saying that more changes are needed in the Employment Relations Bill that has been tabled in parliament.
The ILO now urges the Government of Fiji through the Employment Relations Advisory Body to review its labour laws to ensure compliance with ILO core conventions, and reiterates the request for the submission of a joint implementation report by the government, employers and unions in accordance with the Tripartite Agreement signed in March 2015.
The officers of the ILO have also recommended that the establishment of a commission of inquiry be considered in the next ILO meeting in November this year.
The submission made to the ILO which has been signed off by Minister for Employment, Jioji Konrote and Employers Federation Chief Executive, Nesbitt Hazelman, states that the Employment Relations Amendment Bill provides all workers in essential services and industries the full right of association, namely the right to either continue to organize themselves as in-house Bargaining Units or to form Bargaining Units if they so choose or to join an existing trade union or to register itself as a trade union.
The submission says the bill also provides detailed provisions to enable all workers and employers to freely engage in collective bargaining and provides for a resolution of all disputes of interest arising out of collective bargaining by an independent and tripartite Arbitration Court. It also says that the bill provides the same processes and mechanisms for strike and lockouts in essential services and industries which had previously existed under the Employment Relations Promulgation.
In the FTUC’s submission to the ILO, FTUC General Secretary Felix Anthony says there were absolutely no negotiations in the Employment Relations Advisory Board as required by the ILO Agreement.
Anthony claims the Government totally dictated the terms and only agreed to issues that it felt it had to as a minimum.
Anthony says the workers’ representatives disagree with the denial of the right to strike for all essential services and industries as stipulated in the Essential National Industries Decree and incorporated in the bill, the inclusion of bargaining units from the Essential National Industries Decree into the bill, the inclusion of essential services and industries under the decree into the draft bill.
Fijivillage has sent questions to Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum on the government’s next step after the ILO’s decision.
