4 Mar 2013

Call for Fiji govt to permit police and corrections officers to form unions

7:57 pm on 4 March 2013

The Fiji Trades Union Congress is calling on the government to permit police and corrections officers to form unions.

The FTUC has long lobbied the goverment to amend the law to allow this but their calls have been ignored.

The National Secretary of the FTUC Felix Anthony says police and corrections staff are facing many work related issues including low wages and poor terms and conditions of employment which he says has deteriorated in recent years.

"We're calling on the government to amend the laws that would allow them to form their own associations. And that would be able to represent them not only in collective bargaining but also to take up grievances and disputes through the normal industrial relations processes that we have in the country or the little that we have left in the country."

Felix Anthony says police and corrections officers are afraid of taking their grievances to the government for fear of losing their jobs.