10 Feb 2009

Fiji union critical of interim government's wage increase deferral

12:18 pm on 10 February 2009

Fiji's Council of Trade Unions is critical of the interim government's decision to rescind a wage order to increase the minimum wage.

The interim Prime Minister said the directive was to help employers get through tough economic times and recover from last month's floods.

But FICTU's general secretary Attar Singh says it's very unfair as those earning the minimum wage are left struggling to survive.

Mr Singh says it's yet another example of one person making an overriding decision.

"Now we don't know how this administration makes decisions. I mean we have a Wages Council, which is under the supervision of the Minister of Labour and once the announcement's are made and the orders gazetted, for someone else to come up and rescind that, we don't know whether that is how come it's a cabinet decision and that the cabinet obeys."

The general secretary of Fiji's Council of Trade Unions Attar Singh

The interim government says it's deferred the new wage order until July.