The Employment Relations (Amendment) Bill 2025, in its current form, will severely impact micro and small businesses in Fiji as it assumes that all businesses are large businesses and therefore able to comply with high fines and high labour standards.
This has been highlighted in a joint statement by the MSME Council, Women Entrepreneurs Business Council, Fiji Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Community, Fiji Islands Dance Association (FIDA), Fiji Private Sector Business Development Services group, Duavata Sustainable Tourism Collective, Women in Tech & Knox Fiji – Market Collective.
The MSME networks say they contribute 18 percent to Fiji’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employ approximately 60 percent of the workforce, including the majority of women and youth.
They say majority of MSMEs operate in rural and informal sector and efforts to entice them to transition to formality is a major challenge faced by the Government.
The MSMEs say the National Development Plan (NDP) aims to increase MSME contribution to 22 percent of GDP by 2029, but provisions in the Bill such as criminalization, strict liability, increased powers of labour officers, increase in annual leave and other things will only deter MSMEs from formalising and risk the sustainability of their micro and small enterprises.
They say MSMEs are already facing many challenges such as high cost of doing business, capacity to meet compliance, shortage of skills, impact of climate change and access to finance.
They say these challenges are not only reflected on the NDP but have also been discussed and acknowledged during the National Economic Summit organised by Government in 2023.
The MSME networks are calling on the Government to return the Bill to the Employment Relations Advisory Board (ERAB) and give them the responsibility to negotiate, consult and draft a better Bill that will be fair, balanced and support economic development.
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