‘Labour Shortage Exists, We Have Lost Good People’
‘Obviously, we are losing nurses, we are losing doctors, we are losing general labour, and we are losing all our good people.’
Marc McElrath is asking Government if it could consider the skilled labour shortage that the country is facing.
The McDonald’s Fiji managing director was present during the budget consultation at the Nadi Civic Centre on Tuesday.
He told the Minister of Finance, Biman Prasad, that his company had stopped an investment due to the lack of labour.
“We are worried. We have probably $20 million worth of investment happening and at the moment we have actually put a stop to that because we can’t get labour,” he said.
“The cost of labour is going up. We are happy to pay for that, but in actual fact we don’t have people.”
He asked Mr Prasad if Government could consider this in its National Budget.
“I know there are several other projects happening or coming to fruition shortly in Fiji. We have a major labour shortage coming and I ask that the Government please look into this before major issue.
“Obviously, we are losing nurses, we are losing doctors, we are losing general labour, and we are losing all our good people.”
Mr McElrath said it was a problem that affected all sectors. Mr Prasad said Government was aware of what was happening in the labour market.
“Some issues have risen partly because of the global restructuring adjustment of the labour markets post pandemic in countries like Australia and New Zealand,” he claimed.
“Government has approved funding for Pacific Polytech to ensure it is able to train competency based on labour.
“We will keep on training. That is one side of the equation on how to address the shortage of labour. “We are also trying to address the way in which the Immigration Department facilitates. We understand that some labour needs to be brought from outside the country. “We want to change the act which was changed before and we want to bring back our people.” it becomes a