 |
 |
 |
  |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Hon. Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi – Fiji’s Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations, Employment, Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment Geneva, Wednesday, 11th June, 2008; 2-3pm The ILO Director General, Mr. Juan Somavia; The President of the Conference; Distinguished Tripartite Delegates, Observers and Guests. I am honored to be here and I extend to you Mr. President, Sir, my congratulations on your election, and efficiency in presiding over this world parliament on labour. The Government and people of Fiji also extend our commendation to the ILO Director General, Mr. Juan Somavia for his transformative leadership, in making Decent Work a reality at the national and international levels. The excellent Report of the Director General on strategic challenges relating to Decent Work is thought provoking. It has challenged all of us to have strong moral convictions and to reshape our political and economic policies to ensure that the fruits of globalization are fairly distributed within nations and between nations. This is our common quest to alleviate poverty everywhere, improve security and the quality of our lives. Mr. President, the Fiji Government is fully committed to play its part to make Decent Work a reality within its borders. Our Government has fully ratified the entire eight (8) core ILO Conventions on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, in addition to fourteen (14) ILO Conventions. We welcome the findings in the Global Report on the Freedom of Association, and our Government will continue to honor its obligations to our tripartite partners in this regard. In its desire to strengthen our national Decent Work agenda, the current Government recently ratified a further six (6) ILO Conventions relating to labour inspections, occupational health and safety, nursing, agriculture, seafarers and working conditions in hotels and restaurants. To date, the Fiji Government has ratified a total of twenty eight (28) ILO Conventions, and our reporting obligations under the ILO Constitution have been brought up to date. Mr. President, the Fiji Government believes that for sustainability in our national development, the Decent Work agenda should also have a very strong emphasis on improving productivity. Therefore, we have integrated in our Labour Reform policy framework both the promotion of Decent Work and productivity improvement, consistent with our National Decent Work Action Plan and National Productivity Charter. We consider this integration as a vital ingredient to ensure sustainable socio-economic development. In this regard, we welcome the Report of the Committee on Skills to Improve Productivity Growth and Development and the Report of the Committee on Promotion of Rural Employment for Poverty Reduction, as Decent Work cannot divorce itself from the equally strong need to generate employment and improve productivity in both the formal and informal sectors. These outcomes will also alleviate poverty and child labour amongst the vulnerable sectors of our communities. Mr. President, consistent with this policy vision, our enabling new labour law (“the Employment Relations Promulgation No. 36 of 2007”) repeals and replaces six (6) outdated pieces of labour legislations and replaces them with a modern legislation which promotes good faith social dialogue and productivity improvement through decent work principles. For the first time in our history, this new labour law complies with the relevant ILO Conventions and also fulfills the guiding principles of our National Productivity Charter. This new law, which is the basis of Fiji’s Labour Reform, was the result of very extensive and intensive social dialogue amongst the tripartite social partners, including the ILO, NGOs, various national and international agencies and the general public over the last 10 years. On this note, I wish to commend both the Fiji Trades Unions Congress and the Fiji Employers Federation for their valuable contributions and commitment in the successful enactment of Fiji’s historic labour reform legislation, a copy of which was presented to the ILO Director General in our meeting with him yesterday. This overarching new policy framework will be Fiji’s main platform to re-launch and implement its National Decent Work Action Plan with our social partners. We are also reforming our Wages Councils under the new labour law, with the view to introduce decent minimum wages in the various sectors and then to establish a national minimum wage which will alleviate poverty amongst workers. Mr. President, to strengthen social dialogue between our tripartite partners at the national level, we intend to establish a peak National Tripartite Forum to address issues of major national concerns relating to any labour matters. Complementing this, we are also strengthening social dialogue at the enterprise level through the establishment of Labour-Management Consultation and Cooperation Committees (LMC). The vibrant synergy created at the Tripartite Forum and LMC Committees is designed to boost social dialogue and innovation in workplaces. Together with existing tripartite bodies, the Tripartite Forum and LMC Committees will be pivotal in shifting our conflict resolution mentality away from the adversarial approach towards the good faith partnership culture between our employers and workers. To facilitate this culture change, we have also introduced a Code of Good Faith in Collective Bargaining early this year to guide employers and trade unions to amicably resolve their employment problems at the enterprise level. This peace building effort is underscored by the introduction of Mediation Services as the primary problem-solving institution at the national level under the Labour Ministry. In this way, the litigation processes are relegated to the Employment Relations Tribunal and Employment Relations Court. These new institutions are expected to be fully operational by the end of this month. Mr. President, Fiji’s new labour law is supported by seven (7) subsidiary legislations in the forms of Regulations and Codes. Under this law, we see for the first time the prohibition of child labour, fully paid maternity leave and the introduction of the principle of equal employment opportunities to remove all forms of discrimination. The new law recognizes sexual harassment as a special form of gender discrimination and we have a new National Policy on the Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, and Fiji’s first National Workplace Code of Practice on HIV and AIDS. To ensure good governance, a Code of Ethics for Mediators was also gazetted, including a new Employment Agencies Regulations to address labour mobility issues consistent with relevant ILO and UN Conventions. All these seven legal instruments came into effect on 2nd April 2008 – about nine weeks ago. Mr. President, the new law ensures both workers and employers are treated fairly, with dignity and are rewarded fairly for their work. It ensures smooth and speedy resolutions of grievances and disputes. In this way, we will get rid of bottlenecks and delays in settling disputes that have incurred significant economic and productivity losses. The investors and employers will greatly benefit from the stable working environment under the new legislation. On employment creation, Government has approved our first ever National Youth Service Scheme last year which is fully implemented this year. The Scheme prepares school leavers for recruitment into the formal employment market or starting their own small businesses through seed funding from Government. We believe this Scheme will also help to subdue the incidence of child labour in Fiji. Our Occupational Health and Safety Reform was successfully implemented since 1996. It has significantly reduced our national accident and death rates by 6-10% per annum for the last decade, thereby saving lives and improving productivity. On social security, Mr. President, we are currently overhauling our workers compensation system and to replace it with a “no fault” social insurance scheme to provide better health care and social protection for injured workers and dependants of deceased workers. This will be the last component of our Labour Reform to be undertaken by Government to complete the total overhaul and modernization of our labour policies, laws, institutions, administrations, systems and processes. However, our main challenge now is to effectively implement these new policies to realize Decent Work for all in Fiji, through targeted awareness training and capacity building exercises amongst the social partners. This exercise, my Ministry has started since last year with strong support from our workers and employers organizations. In this regard, we thank ILO for the timely launching of its EU funded IPEC Project on Child Labour in Fiji this year, which I was formally briefed yesterday. We actively support this project, as we share in the belief that child labour creates a major barrier to getting decent education for our children. Mr. President, the Fiji Government is fully committed to take the Decent Work challenges “head on”, in our sincere desire to ensure quality of life for all our people. In this journey, we are fully conscious on the urgent need to also proceed on the pathway of sustainable development that is friendly to both our people and our vulnerable environment. Therefore, we are committed to the initiatives of promoting sustainable development, green productivity and green jobs in this journey. This will safeguard Fiji’s strategic position now and in the future. I thank you Mr. President, Sir. -End- |
|
|
 |
     |
