FIJI Water workers have been given a substantial wage increase of 21.7 per cent from 2023 and 2024.
This was revealed by National Union of Workers general secretary Felix Anthony at a press conference yesterday.
Mr Anthony said the union and management of FIJI Water agreed that the workers would be paid a 5 per cent wage increase effective on January 1, 2023, another 5 per cent effective on January 1, 2024 and another 5 per cent effective on January 1, 2025.
“On top of that, we also agreed that the working hours would be reduced from 45 to 42 hours and that would be without loss of pay, and that itself constitutes a wage increase of 6.7 per cent,” Mr Anthony said.
“So, in all we have a wage increase of about 21.7 per cent for the workers of FIJI Water and this is something we are pleased with and, of course, this would also compensate for some of the issues we had with the rosters that FIJI Water had implemented some time back.”
Mr Anthony said they had had difficult negotiations with the company.
“And I must say that while they claim the negotiations were in good faith, we found that the employer’s representatives were not sincere and forthcoming because we could have cut short these negotiations on day one and resolved the issues.
“Unfortunately, it dragged on to day three (yesterday) of negotiations and even this morning, we still did not resolve one of the issues that we had planned to.
“However, so far as the union is concerned, we are happy with the wage negotiations that we have had.”
In a statement yesterday, FIJI Water stated they were pleased that good faith negotiations had resulted in an agreement that successfully and fairly resolved the matter.
“We appreciate the efforts of the Ministry of Labour and former magistrate Andrew See in facilitating these negotiations that reached consensus on all outstanding issues,” the statement read.
“We and National Union of Workers general secretary Felix Anthony worked collaboratively to put this matter behind us and ensure the workers can return to their jobs, and we thank him for his commitment and leadership. FIJI Water takes great pride in being one of the best employers in Fiji, providing among the highest wages and best benefits, and working with our partners and the unions to operate one of the most advanced and safest plants in the world.”
