PM confirms 115,000 Fijians have lost their jobs or have had their hours cut as a result of COVID-19

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama confirms that 115,000 Fijians or one third of the Fijian workforce have lost their jobs or have had their hours cut as a result of COVID-19.

While speaking via video conference at the International Labor Organization’s Global Summit on COVID-19 and the World of Work, Bainimarama says COVID-19 is clearly the job killer of the century.

Bainimarama says he has met with many of these employees, listened to their stories behind the staggering statics.

He says if we stand any hope of stemming losses in employment in millions rather than billions, they need to act fast to rally to the aid of the most vulnerable.

Bainimarama adds Fiji is a COVID-19 contained country with no cases outside of quarantine facilities in over 80 days.

The Prime Minister further says even with our outbreak in Fiji ended and the global epicentre of the pandemic moving westward, the burden the Fijian people carry on their backs has not shifted an inch or lost a gram.

Bainimarama says that in many ways COVID-19 is deepening the very same inequalities exposed by climate change adding that neither climate change nor COVID-19 can be treated with over the counter cure-alls as both require prescriptive solutions including urgent solutions to adapt societies along with larger longer term shifts in the world economy.