The Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations was allocated a budget of $16.7m in the 2018/2019 national budget.

This comprises of $16m for operating expenditure and VAT of $700,000.

Minister responsible, Jone Usamate says it’s a budget for all families and has a lot of good benefits for workers in particular.

“He had announced some new types of leaves, extension of maternity leave, and the inclusion of paternity leave and for family care type of leaves. And we’ve also seen the bigger an approach that we got for workers compensation, there’s the insurance programme that will now help for people getting social welfare and also for civil servants. All of these things will make a distinct impact of people’s lives so overall it’s a budget that continues the policy of this government and it’s going to lead to a much stronger Fiji.”

Usamate says this is a major boost as they also want to ensure all workers are well done by and employers in Fiji do well.

He says the budget will keep the country moving in the right direction.