China Railway yet to meet the demands of the workers after Union gets mandate to go on strike – Paul

The Construction Energy and Timber Workers Union of Fiji and China Railway No.5 Engineering Group Fiji Co. Ltd are still continuing discussions where about 200 union members have taken a secret ballot to go on strike as they say the company has not settled their log of claims where they are demanding a pay increase.

Union General Secretary John Paul says an agreement was reached in good faith last week to reinstate two staff that were made redundant earlier this year however, when they arrived at work last Friday, they were told to wait.

He says this has been done in bad faith and they have written to the company and are waiting for their response.

Paul says they hope issues will be resolved by this Friday but if it is not then they do have the mandate to go on a strike.

He says he hopes the staff will get a pay rise and get their log of claims settled as the company has failed to meet their demands.

Paul further says the staff did get an end-of-the-year party last Saturday and received some money, but they are asking for a pay rise and not a party.

Meanwhile, China Railway says the meeting with the Union last week was fruitful and the company is currently discussing to resolve the issues.

They say the construction manger has created two posts for the two workers for three months, for now.

The company says the initial reason to make these workers redundant has not been resolved which is due to structural reasons.

They say they currently do not have any more positions available and are in fact overstaffed.

The company says they are is currently having discussions to resolve the issues.

They had earlier said they are hopeful that any strike action option will not be taken by the union as they have met beyond their demands already, and anticipate common sense to prevail in due course.

The company says the workers enjoyed their end-of-the-year party last Saturday, with financial support from the company and the company would like to keep their good relations with the workers and do not anticipate union matters to jeopardize the good relations.