School teachers all over Fiji walked off their jobs on February 28, 1985, in protest of the Ministry’s Volunteer Service Scheme.
An article published by The Fiji Times on March 13 that year, said the teachers, later ended their strike after coming to an agreement with Government, returning to school the following day.
The Fiji Teachers Confederation and the Ministry of Education agreed on the terms of reference for arbitration in their dispute.
This came after an agreement was signed in Suva between the teachers union and the Government.
Both agreed to refer the dispute to an arbitrator appointed by Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, Mohammed Ramzan.
They agreed to ask the arbitrator to decide whether the Ministry filled substantive teaching vacancies by recruiting volunteers: whether it breached any statutory or established rules and procedures: and whether the Ministry’s recruitment of volunteers contravened any awards or agreement to the Government and the teacher’s unions.
Both agreed that if the union’s claims were accepted by the tribunal, the arbitrator would then make an award binding on both sides.
The Ministry agreed to a “no discrimination or victimisation” clause in the agreement. The teachers were not paid for the strike period.
The Ministry in turn wanted the arbitrator to also determine whether the Volunteer Service Scheme has undermined professional standards in teaching.
The Fiji Teachers Confederation was represented at the talks by their President-General, Viliame Saulekaleka, and FTC then executives who were Messrs Krishna Datt, Joeli Kalou, Pratap Chand and Chattar Pal.
The Ministry officials at the talks were the secretary for Education, Naris Raniga, and the former deputy secretary, Hari Ram, and chief education officer, primary, Shiu Prasad.
The Public Service Commission was represented at the talks by former secretary, Winston Thompson, with the acting Director for Industrial Relations, Hari Pal Singh.
