The Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation says the Fiji Trades Union Congress' proposal for an $8 an hour living wage is unreasonable at a time when businesses are already dealing with high operating costs, low productivity and a severe labour shortage.
Speaking to fijivillage News, FCEF Chief Executive Officer Edward Bernard says in the last five years, the national minimum wage has gone up by 115 percent, and this is unprecedented, even in the whole world.
He says the last increase to the national minimum wage came about one year and three months ago, when it rose by around 11 percent.
Bernard says households have also benefited from increased remittances and additional social protection measures introduced by the Coalition Government over the past three budgets.
He says introducing an $8 living wage now would place further pressure on businesses.
Bernard says at a time where the cost of doing business is very high, productivity is very low, the skills and labour crisis is at its high, and we are in the midst of a fuel crisis, it's very unreasonable to ask that a living wage be introduced to the country.
The FCEF CEO says Fiji already has several wage-setting mechanisms, including the national minimum wage, sectoral wages, collective bargaining agreements and performance-based salary increases and introducing another wage system through a living wage would be difficult for a small economy like Fiji.
Bernard stresses many businesses already pay above the minimum wage, he noted that an ILO workshop calculated Fiji's minimum wage should be $4.55 based on the country's GDP.
Bernard also believes the country's biggest challenge is productivity rather than wage levels.
He says the Productivity Master Plan targets annual productivity growth of 3 percent, but according to the Asian Productivity Organisation, Fiji's productivity growth is only about 1.3 percent a year.
Bernard says the Ministry is doing little things on productivity, FNU is doing things on productivity, but there is no consolidated effort to address productivity.
He also says Fiji continues to struggle to retain skilled workers, with many leaving for overseas employment opportunities.
Bernard says businesses are increasingly relying on foreign workers to fill labour shortages and maintain production where around 6,000 to 8,000 work permits were issued last year, involving about 740 employers, and he believes those numbers have increased.
INSERT: FCEF on living wage and inflation 6 Aug
