Immediate action needed to protect Fijian workers' rights

Unions rally in Sydney, protesting against the Fiji military regime’s ongoing attacks on workers’ rights (Image credit: Alison Rahill)

20 July, 2011 The idyllic island paradise travellers to Fiji experience is in stark contrast to the fear and oppression the Pacific nation’s workers wake up to each morning.

In Melbourne recently, the General Secretary of Fiji’s Trade Unions Congress, Felix Anthony painted a horrific picture of the abuse that goes hand in hand with the decimation of workers’ rights by Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s military regime.

Mr Anthony, himself detained and assaulted by the military on several occasions, refuses to accept the regime’s attempts to curtail basic human and workers’ rights.

He presented the harsh and sobering truth of life in Fiji to the ACTU’s international committee on 12 July, before addressing the ACTU Executive on 14 July.

The reality for workers in Fiji is they have few rights; they go to work each day in fear and any attempts to stand up for their rights has grave physical repercussions.

The military has taken over workplaces, acting as management, and applying dictator-style rule to inflict fear-driven obedience from workers.

Union members are routinely physically assaulted and harassed. Employees are too frightened to attend union meetings due to the threat of repercussion. Intimidation rules.

In the Fiji public service, the military has all but taken over, with regime leaders holding the most senior roles.

The ACTU has been disturbed by the dismantling of workers’ rights in Fiji for some time and last month wrote to the Australian Government to raise its concerns.

At the end of Mr Anthony’s account, the ACTU Executive agreed Australia cannot sit back and watch such abhorrent abuse of its Pacific neighbours.

The ACTU Executive resolved to call on the Fiji government to:

Withdraw immediately all military personnel from all civilian workplaces
Amend the law to allow unrestricted trade union activities in the country and stop physical harassment of trade union officials
Immediately revoke the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) enacted in 2006, which allows the regime to operate as an authoritarian government without democratic scrutiny and make a mockery of rule of law;
Restore the 1997 Constitution as it represents a profound and comprehensive commitment to the principles of equality, non-discrimination, human and trade union rights;
Reverse the planned cuts to pension annuity rates and workers’ entitlements under the FNPF and ensure proper and transparent governance arrangements for the FNPF Board; and
Hold immediate elections so that democracy is restored in the country andto set the platform for restoration of international aid and investor confidence, and respect for human and trade union rights.

Union action
Postcards and posters were made available for protest rallies organised in Sydney and Canberra on Friday 2 September. These rallies were part of a global day of action co-ordinated by the International Trade Union Confederation with thousands of unionists from here and across the world having already sent protest emails to the Bainimarama Government.

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