Good news for the hourly paid employees of Tropik Wood Industries Limited and Tropik Wood Products Limited as Fiji Pine Group of Companies Chief Executive Officer, Vimlesh Kumar has announced a 4 percent pay rise for them today.
This follows the increment for Fiji Pine Limited employees who received their increments earlier in the year.
Kumar also says they can say with pride that the Pine Group sustained employment of all its employees despite being impacted by COVID–19.
He also says during COVID the employees received pay increments and bonuses.
The CEO says the organization is facing enormous challenges however, it has also considered the fact that cost of living has risen sharply due to global market forces.
The 4 percent wage review will be back paid from 1st of January, 2022.
The back pay is applicable to all hourly paid employees who have more than one year of work service within the industry, and for employees whose service is less than one year, their 4 percent wage adjustment will be effective from 1st of July 2022.
The company says fortnightly staff and management positions are being recognised based on their individual performance assessments.
Meanwhile there is currently a shortage of logging and cartage service providers in their Viti Levu operations.
Kumar says reliance on a small pool of service providers in logging and cartage comes at a risk and is not sustainable.
He says that is why the Pine Group is venturing into its own logging and cartage fleet.
The CEO says this is a huge investment for the company, which will not just benefit their operations but will generate employment opportunities for their landowners as well.
