Parliament passes Employment Relations Bill to increase time given to employees to file grievance

Parliament has passed the Employment Relations (Amendment) Bill 2023 that increases the time limit for workers in essential services to lodge or file an employment grievance from 21 days to 6 months while the definition of essential services and industries has been amended to add more services and industries.

While tabling the Bill, Attorney General Siromi Turaga says the Act is amended to increase the time limit for workers in essential services to lodge or file an employment grievance from 21 days to 6 months from the date on which the grievance arose and provides that the new time limit for filing an employment grievance does not have retrospective effect.

He says the new definition of essential services and industries provides that additional essential services and industries may be designated and may include a service which is part of the listed service providers, including services provided by the Government, a statutory authority, a local authority including a city council, town council or the Central Board of Health, a company that is a public enterprise as defined in section 2 of the Public Enterprises Act 2019, a duly authorised agent or manager of an employer and a person who owns, or is carrying on, or for the time being is responsible for the management or control of a profession, business, trade or work in which a worker is engaged.

In his right of reply, Turaga says the workers in the country have been given back the powers that they had lost.

He says the Act has been amended to give workers six months to file their grievances.

Minister for Employment, Agni Deo Singh says the struggle of the workers and their leaders to ensure justice, fair play and equality has now finally become a reality after the harrowing experience of 16 years of suppression by a dictatorship that did not give a damn about the rights and freedoms of the workers.

Singh says this is despite the fact that Fiji had ratified fundamental ILO conventions.

While opposing the Bill, FijiFirst MP Jone Usamate says Fiji should not bow to the people who have power of the world as there are some countries who condemn Fiji but they themselves have not ratified ILO Convention 87 but they shout accusations at Fiji.

Usamate says Fiji has the right as a sovereign country and ratify conventions.

He says they looked after Fijian workers and the economy expanded and as it expanded, they were able to invest in roads, education and assistance for electricity and it benefited the same workers and their children.

Usamate says their freedom of association was also preserved.

He says 70 percent of the workers in the country are not represented by trade unions and they do not represent most of the workers.

The Bill was passed where 27 voted for, 23 against while 4 did not vote.