MGT204
Management of Industrial
Relations
Lecture 1
Historical Development of Labour Laws in Fiji
By: Avineel Kumar
Objectives
 Historical Development of Labour Laws in Fiji
 Existing legislations
 About Fiji
 First European on record
 Industrialization and Trade Union movement
 Girmit, Sugar Industry and Indentured laborers
Introduction
 It is absolutely clear that to start anything there is always got to be
a reason and for the start of labour laws there needed to be
industry or workers employed.
 The labour laws in Fiji came about as a result of industrialization
that is “Sugar Industry”.
 As other commonwealth countries, Fiji’s history of labour
legislation have been to a large extent inherited from the British
Colonial Era, but many has changed and much improved to meet
the current global needs.
 The future of labour legislation in Fiji is the “Employment
Relations Act 2007” formerly known as ERP 2007.
Cont…
 The ERA 2007 consolidated existing labour legislation and
repeal and replaced the:
1.
Employment Act (Cap 92)
2.
Wages Councils Act (Cap 98)
3.
Trade Disputes Act (Cap 97)
4.
Trade Unions Act (Cap 96)
5.
Trade Unions (Recognition) Act 1998 (Cap 96A) and
6.
Public Holidays Act (Cap 101).
 These Acts were archaic and had failed to keep pace with
the modern developments in the local labour market.
About Fiji
 Fiji has 332 Islands with International date line crossing over Fiji
and a population of 884,887 (2017) compared to 837,271 in the
2007 census.
 The median age of population is 27.5 years. This means that half of
our population is below the age of 27.5 years.
 69 per cent of Fiji’s population is below the age of 40.
 Men make up 50.7 per cent of the population while women make
up 49.3 percent. The proportion of males is higher below the age
of 59 years, the female population is higher in the age groups
above 60, indicating greater female longevity.
About Fiji Cont…
 Fiji gained independence on 10th October 1970, some 96
years to the day when the Fijian Chiefs ceded the islands to
QueenVictoria in 1874.
 The first European on record to visit the islands was Abel
Jansz Tasman in 1643.
 James Cook stopped by in 1774 and William Bligh in 1789
and 1792.
Cont…
Abel Jansz Tasman
Thomas Cook
William Bligh
Cont…
 In 1804, the first European settlement was in Levuka,
founded by Europeans who came first as merchants and later
as planters.
 Main products the merchants wanted to obtain were
sandalwood and sea cucumber which they could sell in China
for a high price.
 The most valuable commodity the Fijians could obtain from
the merchants was muskets, which enabled the chiefs of Bau,
Naulivou and his successor Cakobau, to establish the
Confederation of Bau unifying much of Fiji under their rule.
Cont…
 During the U.S. civil war, the world market price for cotton
went up sharply thus more plantations were established in Fiji
and the Europeans demanded more labour from the ethnic
Fijian communities.
 The Fijian tribal chiefs responded by first forming the United
Tribes of Fiji in 1865.
 After Fiji was ceded to Britain in 1874 epidemics nearly
wiped out the population and it seemed as if the natives were
doomed but the colonial government took the natives side.
Cont…
 The first colonial governor of Fiji, Sir Arthur Gordon,
introduced Indian indentured laborers (Fijian of Indian Decent)
to work on sugar cane plantations.
 Gordon prohibited indigenous Fijians from commercial
employment so that they could enjoy their traditional
lifestyle undisrupted by contact with outside forces, and thus
escape the fate that befell other indigenous communities that
came into contact with the outside world.
Cont…
 The introduction of Indian indentured laborers into Fiji was a
key element of Gordon's policy as he wanted to protect the
indigenous community.
 The other reasons why Indian labourers were brought in
from India was because Native Fijians had customary issues.
 Between 1879 and 1916 approximately 60,000 indentured
laborers came to Fiji, and their work helped create the
foundations of Fiji's sugar-based economy.
Cont…
 Fiji was the last major importer of Indian indentured
labourers.
 By the time migration to Fiji began in 1879, Indian
indentured labourers had been emigrating for forty five
years, beginning with Mauritius in 1834, British Guyana in
1838, Trinidad and Jamaica in 1845, Grenada in 1856 and St
Lucia in 1858, St. Kitts and Natal in 1860, St. Vincent and
Reunion in 1861, and Surinam in 1873.
 By 1916, when emigration ceased, over one million Indians
had crossed the “Kala Pani”, the dark, dreaded seas, of these,
some sixty thousand came to Fiji, forty five thousand from
North India and fifteen thousand from the South.
Cont…
 Their descendants constitute the bulk of the present Fijian of
Indian Decent population, the rest being descendants of
Gujarati traders and Punjabi agriculturalists who arrived
in the 1920s.
 Once the indentured labor system was abolished in 1920,
most of the indentured laborers chose to remain in Fiji after
the expiration of their five-year contracts and settled in
the sugar cane belts of Fiji, principally on the two main
islands of Viti Levu andVanua Levu.
 Till today the Gujarati’s are business people and Punjabi are
agriculturalist so for that reason they are financially better
then other migrants.
Cont…
 The association between India and Fiji is linked to the
evolution of colonial trade and industry.
 There was a need for cheap labour in the dominions of the
British Empire, and Indian labourers fulfilled the need.
 Indian men and women laboured to drive the economies of
far-flung British colonies - in Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad,
Mauritius, South Africa and Fiji.
 Indians went on contract basis as indentured labour to work
on the sugarcane fields and the contracts they signed were
known as “Girtmit” in Fiji.
Contract “Girmit”
Cont…
 As the Fijian sugar economy developed, the number of hired
workers outside the family farms increased sharply.
 Given the colonial power structure and the oppressive/cruel
Labour legislation that were in place, worker resistance to
exploitation frequently had to be expressed in other than
traditional Trade Union responses.
 With independence in 1970, many of the tensions built up
over the years were released and came into political
developments.
Cont…
 Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara was appointed Fiji's first Prime Minister
on 10th October 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from
Britain. Mara had served as Chief Minister, from 20 September
1967 (while Fiji was still a British colony)
 Timoci Uluivuda Bavadra contested his first election in 1987 and
through an electoral coalition between his Labour Party and NFP
captured 28 seats, four more than the Alliance Party.
 Although much larger, the NFP agreed to play a junior role in the
coalition, aware that much of the ethnic Fijian community was not
ready to accept an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.
Cont...
 To date Fiji has gone through four political coups (Two coups
in 1987 followed by in 2000 and 2006) and as a result three
different Constitutions have been changed (1970, 1990 and
1997).
 The 2014 general election was held under the new 2013
Constitution.
 The Fiji First political party won the 2014 and the 2018
general elections and secured
Parliament.
a majority seat in the