Employment Relations Bill is flawed and overreaching, fourth independent party to be involved in Bill assessment - Employers

The Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation has raised concerns that the way the Employment Relations Bill is written is terribly flawed, not written by people familiar with legal language, and it is overreaching.

During a special fijivillage Straight Talk show, Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association CEO, Fantasha Lockington stressed that they realised when they were shown the Bill, it was a completely different document from the initial one they had spent years reviewing as part of the tripartite forum.

She says that suddenly, the Bill introduced huge fines, assumed that every employer is a large corporation, assumed wage theft was occurring on a large scale, and that every second employer was stealing from their employees.

She says they know this is not true.

Lockington says that the Fiji Trades Union Congress had submitted numerous suggestions to the Ministry of Employment, and the Ministry stuck them all in.

FTUC National Secretary, Felix Anthony says he does not think that is true and that Lockington should fact-check her claims.

When asked what the employers want, Lockington mentioned that they want the parties to be able to meet in a room without just the Employment Ministry present.

She adds that a fourth independent party should also be involved.

Responding to this, the Ministry of Employment’s Deputy Secretary, Atish Kumar says the Bill has gone through the Employment Relations Advisory Board process, is currently with Parliament, and is being handled independently.

He says that a proposed law is likely to go to Parliament soon.

Meanwhile, Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation CEO, Edward Bernard says that when this government came to power in 2022, they did two very important things.

He says one was reconstituting the Employment Relations Advisory Board, and the second was bringing the Employment Relations Amendment Bill 2023 to Parliament.

Bernard explained that a Bill was presented to Parliament to amend the current Act to align it with International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.

He says that in 2023, a Bill had already been passed by Parliament, aligning the law with ILO conventions and addressing the Committee of Experts’ recommendations.

However, Bernard says that gaps remain, including the lack of a comprehensive legislative review, and the Bill being overreaching.

Anthony corrected Bernard that the Bill passed by Parliament only partially addressed the Committee of Experts’ concerns and was not a complete review of the issues they highlighted.

Anthony further says that this outcome was based on agreements signed by the FTUC, employers, and the government in Geneva in 2015 and another in Fiji in 2016.

He explained that it was not a full review of the Committee of Experts’ recommendations.

He says that the Bill, when presented was mainly drafted by the government.

Responding to this, Deputy Secretary for Employment, Atish Kumar said that consultations were conducted.