Fiji Public Service Association General Secretary, Rajeshwar Singh says they are planning to take more cases to the Employment Relations Tribunal after 89 workers of Fiji Revenue and Customs Service were laid off on Monday as part of proposed compulsory redundancies.
Acting CEO of FRCS, Fay Yee is yet to respond to our questions and requests for a response in relation to job losses at FRCS.
We emailed FRCS on the 28th of last month.
The email was acknowledged but there has still not been any response.
Singh says about 60 staff took voluntary redundancy and received the ex-gratia payment of $4000 plus one week’s pay for each completed year of service.
However he says the union is not happy as the 89 workers were let go on Monday after they were served a notice of proposed compulsory redundancy on November 19th 2021.
Singh says in one case, the FPSA had taken the matter to the Employment Relations Tribunal and they won a case of Jitendra Krishna where the Tribunal gave the order with the consent of the FRCS, for Krishna to serve his contract until October 2022.
He says other members were also asked to join the action with Krishna but they thought they will get one on one interviews with FRCS and retain their jobs.
Singh says most of these people have come back to the union and want to take action.
When asked if this may be a losing battle, Singh says they know FRCS wants the workers out due to technology and is using the Employment Relations Act however the union maintains the action is harsh and the workers could have been deployed to other areas.
Singh says many of these workers have been drastically affected as they have bills and other family expenses to meet.
We have asked FRCS about the Fiji Public Service Association saying that 89 workers were let go after they received the proposed compulsory redundancy notice from Monday.
They have acknowledged our email but are yet to respond.
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