The Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, Mr. Filipe Bole, confirmed today from the latest compliance results received from the Labour Ministry, that most of the industries are complying with the whole of the ten (10) new Wages Regulations Orders (WROs) promulgated by Government with effect from 1st July 2009, after the six (6) months grace period was granted to employers.
Amongst other things, the Minister added that this showed the commitments by the majority of employers to honor their moral and legal responsibilities to their workers and also is a show of confidence in the labour market during this recovery phase of our domestic and global economy.
The new WROs, which cover ten industries or sectors, were revised up in terms of wage rates by 5 to 20%, as the result of the significantly improved terms and conditions of employment brought about under the Labour Reform policy framework of the new Employment Relations Promulgation 2007.
The Minister reaffirmed Government’s commitment under the Peoples Charter for Change in moving towards the goal of a national minimum wage in phases to alleviate poverty on the basis of the country’s economic and social development.
However, he said that at the moment Government is maintaining the current sectorial minimum wages format to facilitate economic recovery by the various sectors, with the aim to sequentially improve minimum wages, and terms and conditions of employment across all sectors above the poverty line and towards a national minimum wage later.
On this poverty alleviation exercise, the Minister exhorts all employers to actively demonstrate their moral and social responsibilities during these times of economic hardships by significantly improving their enterprise productivity on a sustainable basis in order to promote employment and provide a fair return in productivity gains to their workers in accordance with the principles of Good Faith under the Employment Relations Promulgations 2007 and the Labour-Management Consultation and Cooperation Committees Regulations 2008.
From the data received to date, the compliance rates of the new WROs by industries are as follows: Printing Trades (100%); Mining & Quarrying Industry (100%); Sawmilling & Logging Industry (100%); Wholesale & Retail Trades (95.5%); Hotel & Catering Trades (94.7%); Garment Industry (90%); (Building and Civil & Electrical Engineering Trades (85.7%); Road Transport (66.7%); Manufacturing Industry (60%); and Security Services (4.7%).
With the exception of the Security industry, the results are quite encouraging and contrary to the belief held by some that the implementation of the new WROs could not be sustained by industries and employers.
Only one hundred and twenty two (122) workers lodged their complaints from the minority employers not complying with the new WROs, out of which the Ministry’s Compliance Service has settled 24% of these cases with a total recovery of $3,962.74 in arrears of wages. The rest of the 93 cases (76%) are currently being processed.
The Minister reminded these employers that the Compliance Service of the Labour Ministry will step its inspections of enterprises and will fully enforce the new WROs as they are now law with effect from 1st July 2009, and all employers are required to fully comply with the new wages regulations.
In this regard, the Minister reaffirmed Government’s commitment to take non complying employers to court to ensure that workers are paid their fair wages and that social justice is actually delivered.
This is the role of the Ministry – to ensure that Government’s social justice policies in the labour market under the Labour Reform are implemented to ensure poverty is alleviated in the workers, his or her family and the nation as a whole. Also, the new labour laws require that all employers to sustainably improve productivity within their enterprises to remain competitive by adopting modern and best business practices.
On this issue, the Minister reminded all employers with more than 20 workers to establish their Labour-Management Consultation and Cooperation Committees (LMCCs) and contact the Ministry’s new Productivity Unit to conduct their LMCC accredited training and to learn new productivity improvement methods, techniques and approaches to improve their productive capacity and profitability.
The Minister advised that the Labour Ministry’s new Productivity Unit is working closely with the Productivity Department of the Training & Productivity Authority of Fiji to spearhead a major productivity drive across both the private and public sectors to establish LMCCs and capacity build them as productivity change agents within enterprises, Government Ministries/Departments and other organizations.
In concluding, the Minister said that for the small number of employers who honestly believe that they cannot comply with the new wage rates under the revised WROs, they can write to him and he will constitute a Panel of Accountants to look into their books and advise him of their findings before he makes a decision under Section 54 (5) of the Promulgation and Regulation 19(6) of the Employment Relations (Administration) Regulations 2008.
Basically, the issue here is for the employer to ‘open up their books’ for determination of ability or inability to pay by the Panel of Accountants relative to the minimum wages under the relevant WROs. This ‘one-on-one’ process and will be treated with the highest level of confidentiality.
Filipe Bole
Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment