Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations Jone Usamate paid a courtesy visit to the ILO Director-General Policy Deborah Greenfield while attending the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland and provided an update on Fiji’s labour relations.
Usamate highlighted the Fijian Government’s strategic national objective through its National Development Plan and its focus to reduce unemployment to below 4 percent.
He says with the COP23 Presidency, Fiji is glad to be able to link ILO into the Climate Change discussions through participation of ILO in technical groups giving advice on Just Transition and Decent Work.
The Minister highlighting that Fiji’s National Employment Policy which is now in final text has ten key policy areas which includes youth employment, green jobs, gender equality and strengthening good faith relations.
He added, Fiji’s Decent Work Country Programme is also in final text which he hopes to be able to implement this at the earliest.
The Minister noted the tripartite labour relations mechanism is continuing with the Employment Relations Advisory Board new term appointments, and also the National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Board and National Employment Centre Board which are also tripartite in nature.
Further to that, the Labour Law Review is continuing through a tripartite technical committee.
Usamate assured the ILO Director that Fiji is committed to following through with the Joint Implementation Agreement signed by the tripartite partners.
