Fiji trade unions say international community is aware of country’s labour conditions

Posted at 17:46 on 07 October, 2012 UTC
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=71387

The National Secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress has condemned the Government’s efforts to justify labour conditions to the international community.

The US is in the process of deciding if Fiji will be excluded from the General System of Preferences programme, which supports exports from developing countries, following a complaint from unions.

The Commerce and Employers Federation says conditions for workers have never been better.

But the trades union congress’s Felix Anthony says the international community is well aware of the poor labour conditions in Fiji.

“I think the regime would want the world to believe that there’s nothing wrong in Fiji, but as a matter of fact everyone knows what is happening in Fiji. The labour situation is no longer a domestic matter for Fiji, it’s an international issue. I don’t believe that the regime is serious when it attempts to tell the world that it is telling the truth and everyone else in the world is not telling the truth.”