The situation will get worse before it gets better – FTUC

The National Secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress, Felix Anthony says they expect the situation to get worse before it gets better.

Anthony says this is the time for everyone to work together to see how they can mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and one party cannot do everything.

He says they need the cooperation of all social partners and move forward.

Meanwhile the President of the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, Sandeep Chauhan says they have made submissions for the National Budget to find ways on how the businesses can survive the pandemic.

Chauhan says they have just finished a survey to find out how many businesses have been shut down or how many businesses have been severely affected by COVID-19.

He adds that they are mindful that Fiji is not a big economy.

Meanwhile, a historic memorandum of agreement has been signed between the Fiji Trades Union Congress and the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation that will implement the "Transition to Business" project.

The immediate objective of the project is to target redundant formal sector workers who have started potentially scaleable businesses and build their capacities to sustain their micro-businesses and income for their families.

The specific services the initiative will provide are business training, business advisory and business mentoring.