The management of Air Terminal Services Limited is meeting with the ATS Chairman Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum this hour in relation to the ATS workers who had illegally walked out of their workplace on Saturday.
About 100 ATS workers who have now been locked out of the workplace by their employer, are still gathered outside the ATS premises.
Neither Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum nor Acting ATS Chief Executive Officer Hare Mani could be reached for a comment this hour as the meeting is still underway.
As the meeting continues, Fiji Trades Union Congress General Secretary, Felix Anthony says the workers want to return to work and he does not see any problems with them attending a shareholders meeting during working hours on Saturday.
Anthony is saying that the workers are locked out and the Ministry of Employment needs to act on it.
Minister for Employment, Jone Usamate is yet to comment however he has declared the strike by the ATS employees as unlawful.
A statement says this is in accordance with the Employment Relations Act 2007.
It says no supervised secret ballot was carried out prior to the initiation of the strike, as is required by the Act.
The statement further says the unlawful strike has occurred while a Settlement Agreement is already in place between the union and the employer.
It also says as a result of the Settlement Agreement, a notice of secret ballot for strike received by the Registrar of Trade Unions could not be processed.
Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum met with the ATS employees last night however no resolution has been reached as yet.
Fijivillage has also received confirmation that Sayed-Khaiyum had a meeting with all the airport stakeholders earlier today to look for ways to ensure that there are no disruptions to airport services.
The Fijian Government holds 51% of ATS shares while ATS Employee Trust holds 49% of ATS shares.
Meanwhile Fiji’s international carrier, Fiji Airways confirms that their catering services will continue to be affected today due to the ATS strike.
Fiji Airways has advised guests that they will have limited catering onboard their flights out of Nadi due to industrial action by their ground handling and catering providers.
The airline company says while they will endeavour to source alternative catering, this will not be as per their normal service and they welcome passengers bringing food they would need for their flight.
It confirms that carriage of liquids to Australian and US ports are still in place, however beverages will be available onboard.
