The National Secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress, Felix Anthony has welcomed a number of initiatives announced in the 2018/2019 National Budget which includes the Parenthood Assistance Payment Program and Family Care leave.
Anthony says the FTUC was advocating that maternity protection be in line with the ILO Convention on maternity protection and the announcement in the National Budget brings Fiji to be complaint with the ILO Convention.
However, Anthony says there was nothing on the national minimum wage rate and he believes that this was a critical component of the National Budget that the government needed to concentrate on.
We asked Anthony whether having a $4 national minimum wage rate will have a negative impact on small businesses as they may not be able to pay this rate and close down.
Anthony says they do not have any intention of killing small businesses.
In his National Budget address, Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum had stated that they can increase the national minimum wage rate to $5, $10 and $20 and then watch thousands of Fijians lose their jobs and over 100,000 Fijians in the informal sector be crushed by higher prices of goods and services.
He says it was the Bainimarama government that instituted the national minimum wage for unskilled workers. He says they have increased the minimum wage twice since then to $2.68 an hour.
Sayed-Khaiyum had also highlighted that they also have 10 sectorial wages councils which have higher wages than the national minimum wage rate.
He says they have carried out a comprehensive review of that wage rate this year in consultation with an international expert and have gone to great lengths to make sure the review has been thorough, participatory, transparent and inclusive.
Sayed-Khaiyum says they are helping families with education, water, electricity and purchase of basic goods and affordability of housing.
He has stressed that they will continue to take the sophisticated approach and carry out regular reviews of the minimum wage without compromising the rights of workers, without undermining confidence of businesses and without costing hardworking Fijians their jobs.
