Minister declares resort stoppage unlawful
A“strike” by a small group of workers at one of the country’s top resorts has been declared illegal. Employment, Productivity, and Industrial Relations Minister Parveen Bala acted over a dispute by about 30 National Union of Hospitality Catering & Tourism Industries workers at the InterContinental Fiji.
Since last week the staff from the engineering department at the resort at Natadola Bay have protested against their management.
Mr Bala said, “I have been advised by the Registrar of Trade Unions that he did not receive a notice of secret ballot as required under section 175 of the Employment Relations Act 2007. The strike is also in contravention of section 177 (c) and (d) of the Employment Relations Act 2007.
“Acting in accordance with section 180 (1) of the Employment Relations Act 2007, I hereby declare the strike on 8 February 2019 to be unlawful.”
Union general secretary Daniel Urai said he was aware of the issue which involved a supervisor.
He said: “They had asked the General Manager to remove him out of the department because they couldn’t work with him. The GM did not want to remove him.”
National Union of Hospitality Catering & Tourism Industries Employees In-House president Oria Biu said: “It is just a peaceful healthy protest, it’s not a strike, nor a walkout nor a lockout.
“The staff did protest not to work and were given a time frame to return to work but as per their conditions were not met they continued not to work.”
She added yesterday afternoon that the matter was yet to be resolved. The staff involved were asked to vacate the premises and to protest elsewhere.
InterContinental Area Director Human Resources Bui Waqaniburotu said there was a meeting with union reps on Thursday. But it did not achieve resolution to the grievances, and then the matter was reported to the Ministry as a dispute.
A letter seen by the Fiji Sun asked the workers to return to work. It said if they did not they would be in “serious breach of your employment contract and Fiji’s employment law.”