The Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation and the Fiji Trades Union Congress today signed a Memorandum of Agreement to implement the “Transition to Business” (T2B) project.

The Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation and the Fiji Trades Union Congress today signed a Memorandum of Agreement to implement the “Transition to Business” (T2B) project.

The project aims to build the capacity of redundant workers who have started potentially scalable businesses.

FTUC National Secretary Felix Anthony says 50% of their surveyed members are redundant and of these 46% have ventured into self-employment.

Anthony says the initiative will ensure they provide the support FTUC members need to continue to earn an income for themselves and their families.

He adds the T2B project will contribute to improving local economic activity and also create more employment.

“These are very unusual times and the challenges we face currently is something very new to us. With the challenges we need to find ways as to how we can address them and more particularly when it comes to workers who are facing severe hardship. This calls for the social partners particularly the employers and Government to work together to find solutions. This is not the time for conflict.”

FCEF President Sandeep Chauhan says the project will provide business training, business advisory and business mentoring.

“During the course of the discussions there were opportunities or that people have lost jobs and that they’re starting their own businesses but they don’t have the expertise to run their own businesses and that’s when we said to ILO we will step up and help those businesses because we’ve been running successful programs.”

The preliminary findings of the recently concluded national Tripartite –ILO Rapid Assessment on the impact of COVID-19 on employment and businesses provided the impetus for FCEF and FTUC to collaborate on the initiative.

The T2B initiative was conceived through a bipartite meeting last month which was facilitated by the International Labour Organisation.