Fiji resumes public consultations on the review of its national minimum wage and wages regulations, nearly three years after consultations were last held.
The country’s Minister for Employment Parveen Bala is in Vanua Levu today for the first round of consultations, scheduled for two hours from midday, at the Civic Centre in Labasa.
Consultations were last held around May 2019 following a review the same year of Fiji’s wage rate which stands at $2.68 per hour since 2017.
It is unclear what the proposed wage rate is this time around, but in 2018 Australian consultant Dr. Partha Gangopadhyay who was engaged by the Fijian Government to carry out a review of the same had recommended three different rates, of $2.75 as the bare minimum, $2.85 or a maximum of $3.10 per hour.
However, the Fiji Trades Union Congress reportedly maintains that the national minimum wage should be set at $4 per hour.
The Fijian Government hopes to complete the review before it announces a mini-budget next month.
