The Fiji Trades Union Congress says Minister for Employment Parveen Kumar has no idea of the real concept of tripartism works.
National secretary Felix Anthony made the comments after Mr Kumar attacked the unions in Parliament last Tuesday.
“They have boycotted this meeting time and again, time and again, they had boycotted all the meetings that were organised by the Ministry of Employment,” Mr Kumar had claimed.
Mr Anthony said the FTUC had participated in the Employment Relations Advisory Board from 2008 until 2017.
“It is amusing that this minister attempts to give a lecture on tripartism when he himself has absolutely no idea of the real concept of tripartism, let alone industrial relations,” Mr Anthony said.
“Despite signing two agreements and numerous undertakings to ILO, this Government has yet to honour agreements signed in 2015 and 2016.
“The FTUC despite this, participated in informal discussions with employers and the Government to pursue the agreements without any progress because of the absence of any leadership from this very minister.”
The FTUC said a government survey on the effects of COVID-19 on employees “will be irrelevant” when it is released.
“The report was to be made as soon as possible as a snapshot of the situation at the time the survey was conducted and not months later.”
