Following the call made by the Fiji Trades Union Congress for the living wage to be increased to $8 an hour, the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation Chief Executive, Edward Bernard says demanding for a new wages system in an economic climate where businesses and even the Government is trying to survive and continue to employ workers, is not good faith on the part of FTUC.
Bernard says decent work including fair wages that contributes to progressive improvements in workers’ living standards, enterprise sustainability and economic prosperity.
He says FTUC’s call for $8 per hour living wage must be evidenced and balanced against Fiji’s unique challenges such as low productivity, widening skills gaps, high youth unemployment and rising cost of freight and production inputs.
Bernard says the World Bank has warned that Fiji’s economic growth could slow below 3 percent unless the country urgently strengthens reforms, improves productivity and rebuilds fiscal discipline.
He says Fiji’s minimum wage has risen by 115 percent since 2015 from $2.32 to $5.00 per hour, and by 86.6 percent in just the past three years, making it perhaps the highest wage increases in the world.
Bernard says Fiji’s minimum wage is over 60 percent higher than Papua New Guinea’s, even though PNG’s Gross Domestic Product is four times larger than Fiji’s.
The FCEF CEO says at the same time, we have had increase in sectoral wages – where most sectors are paying above $5 per hour.
He says recently FCEF pushed for the standardization of meal allowance for workers across all sectors and supported an increase in the meal allowance of workers, based on evidence it presented to the Wages Council.
There has also been an increase in income at the household level through the $1.4 billion in remittance.
Bernard says in establishing a living wage, the ILO and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, explicitly requires taking into account the country circumstances and ensuring enterprise sustainability.
FCEF supports Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka’s response to FTUC - that wage reviews must be structured, transparent, informed by economic realities and cost of living.
