Striking the right modality to work with Government is as important as the discussions that takes place between the private sector and Government.
The last few months has seen closer cooperation and genuine dialogue between the Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation (FCEF) and the Ministry of Immigration. Both parties have agreed to form a Joint Working Committee (JWC) to discuss specific challenges and jointly find solutions that work for both parties for work permit approvals.
This modality is now being replicated with the Ministry of Employment, Productivity & Workplace Relations, to find solutions to re-integrate returning seasonal workers into Fiji’s labour market.
Internal challenges
Fiji’s labour market is not working for Fiji. There are major supply side challenges and businesses need to secure labour and skills to keep machines working, factories operational, production moving and offices open.
When the private sector cannot source labour and skills locally, the only option is to bring in foreign workers. FCEF’s National Skills Gap Analysis Survey highlights that while the preference by employers is to hire locals, employment of foreign workers has increased by 79 per cent in the last three years.
However, work permit application processing has not been efficient to ensure reduction in recruitment cost and lead time to place the foreign worker at the job site.
There has been challenges on both sides. The lodgement of 800 work permit applications a month has put enormous strain on ministry resources. Incomplete and fraudulent documentation by employers or their recruitment agents has also caused major delays and in cases not approved.
It could take 3-6 months to receive a work permit approval. This lengthy lead time has resulted in potential foreign workers deciding to take up employment in other countries. This means that the employer now needs to re-start the whole process again and hoping for a positive outcome.
External challenges
Fiji is a growing labour receiving country.
Since 2022, Bangladesh then India remains the largest source market for foreign workers. From our region, Solomons, Papua New Guinea and Tonga make up the largest proportion of foreign workers.
While Fiji has bilateral agreements with Australia and New Zealand to send our workers for seasonal work, there are no bilateral agreements between Fiji and our labour sourcing countries. This causes major challenges in ensuring safe recruitment and migration for both foreign workers and employers.
Recruiting foreign workers is not cheap. The average recruitment cost is $2000 to $3000. This cost is borne by the employer even before the foreign worker lands in Fiji. Accommodation, food and salary are separate costs.
Past attempts to find solutions
A system that was negotiated by FCEF a few years ago was the “Qualified Employer List (QEL)”. This required FCEF to provide a list of responsible businesses to the Ministry of Immigration for priority processing. FCEF would also provide a letter that business could attach to their work permit applications.
There were other existing national systems proposed such as the Gold Card System administered by the Fiji Customs & Revenue Service (FRCS).
However, it was found that overall, this system was not working for all employers. Especially, those that were not on the QEL. Infringing employers, in fact were a very small percentage.
The QEL system was removed last year by the ministry. While the number of infringing employers was relatively low, the majority of the good employers are put through the same tedious vetting and approval process.
For FCEF, this meant that a closer working relationship needed to be established with the Ministry of Immigration and a new system put in place urgently.
The evidence
FCEF’s National Skills Gap Analysis Survey launched by the Prime Minister in May this year, was the game changer. The survey identified about 95 different jobs that employers were finding difficult to fill with locals.
This also responded to the Minister of Immigration’s specific challenge of not having a verified list of jobs that employers are offering but locals are not taking up.
To ensure that the survey was credible, FCEF sort the assistance of the Fiji Bureau of Statistics to conduct the survey. The survey achieved a 91.2 per cent response rate and has been widely referenced in recent labour market initiatives such as the draft National Strategic Human Resource Development Plan.
The Minister for Immigration was also invited to FCEF’s Top Executive Conference (TOPEX) to discuss this important challenge and many bilateral meetings were also organised to clear the path for this collaboration.
The solution
With the blessings of the Minister for Immigration, Hon. Viliame Naupoto, a JWC has been formed to jointly recommend to the minister, a work permit approval system that works for both parties. The first meeting of the JWC was held on September 20, 2026.
The Ministry of Immigration’s core priority is security of our boarders and all people that reside and work in Fiji. On the other hand, the private sector’s role is to ensure business sustainability and contribution to Fiji’s economic development.
The Joint Working Committee (JWC) modality is working and there has been progress in many fronts with the Ministry of Immigration. The JWC allows for mutual respect and understanding of each others challenges and objectively sets the path to jointly co-create solutions.
