Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Fiji (Ratification: 1974)

The Committee notes the Government’s report, as well as the information provided to the Conference Committee in June 2002 and the debates that took place.

1. Article 2 of the Convention. In its previous comments, the Committee had requested the Government to provide information in its next report on the contents of the 1996 report of the subcommittee of the Labour Advisory Board with regard to the measures to be taken to guarantee adequate protection to workers’ organizations against acts of interference by employers or their organizations, including sufficiently effective and dissuasive sanctions, and had expressed the firm hope that the Government would take the necessary measures in the very near future to ensure full compliance with the Convention on this point. In its report, the Government indicates that the Labour Advisory Board at its last meeting on 16 July 2002 considered that work on the Industrial Relations Bill should continue. The Government also adds that the situation augurs well for industrial relations in Fiji especially after the ratification of all the core Conventions in April of this year. The Committee recalls that it has been commenting on this issue for several years, and while taking note of this information it once again expresses the firm hope that the Government will take the necessary measures in the very near future to amend the legislation and ensure full compliance with the Convention on this point.

2. Article 4. With regard to the Fiji Trade Union Congress’ (FTUC) previous comments that the Vatukoula Joint Mining Company has engaged in delaying tactics and has challenged the report of the Commission of Inquiry concerning the refusal by the company to recognize an independent registered Fiji mineworkers’ union, the Committee had requested the Government to inform it of the court’s decision in this matter once it is issued. In this respect, the Government indicates in its report that the case is still before the court, and that it has initiated actions to have the stay order struck out. The Committee notes this information and requests the Government to keep it informed of the developments in this regard in its next report.

Moreover, the Committee had previously requested the Government to submit the provisions of the Trade Unions (Recognition) Act which have been amended to extend collective bargaining rights to the representative unions in a bargaining unit even when none of them covers 50 per cent of the employees in this unit. The Committee notes with satisfaction that the old legal provisions on recognition of trade unions have been repealed by the enactment of the new Trade Unions (Recognition) Act of 1998, which provides recognition of minority unions for the purposes of collective bargaining.

In its previous comments, the Committee had asked the Government to take the necessary measures to amend section 10 of the Counter-Inflation (Remuneration) Act, which allowed for the restriction or regulation, by order of the Prices and Incomes Board, of remuneration of any kind, and stipulated that any agreement or arrangement which did not respect these limitations would be illegal and deemed to be an offence. The Committee had considered that the powers vested under the Act in the Prices and Incomes Board did not meet the criteria for acceptable limitations on voluntary collective bargaining and had asked the Government to keep it informed of any application in practice of section 10 of the Act. The Government considers in its report that section 10 is in full compliance with the provisions of Article 4 for the reasons that: (1) it had been invoked by the Minister of Finance to meet national economic interests; and (2) once this objective has been met and free collective bargaining reintroduced, section 10 has again become dormant.

While noting the Government’s view on this point, the Committee must once again recall that if, under an economic stabilization or structural adjustment policy, for compelling reasons of national economic interest, wage rates cannot be fixed freely by means of collective bargaining, restrictions should be applied as an exceptional measure and only to the extent necessary, should not exceed a reasonable period and should be accompanied by adequate safeguards to protect effectively the standard of living of the workers concerned (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 260). Since the criteria for acceptable limitations on voluntary collective bargaining do not appear to have been met, the Committee would accordingly once again ask the Government to take the necessary measures to amend section 10 of the Act in order to ensure full compliance with the Convention.