23 January, 2014IndustriALL Global Union calls upon its affiliates to join the campaign launched by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), demanding to establish an ILO Commission of Inquiry to investigate the systematic violation of trade union rights in Fiji.
Following a coup d’etat in 2006, dictator Commodore Bainamarama and his regime have systematically denied freedom of association in law and practice in Fiji.
In 2012 a high-level fact-finding mission of the International Labour Organization (ILO) was kicked out of Fiji by the regime. The mission was supposed to investigate the results of a repressive labour reform put in place a year before.
For years, ILO supervisory mechanisms have detailed extremely serious and systematic violations of freedom of association. They range from harsh beatings, threats, arrests on false charges and constant surveillance, to severe restrictions on workers’ rights in the public sector, and even in the private industries under the pretext of classifying them as ‘essential services’.
In June 2013, a complaint to establish an ILO Commission of Inquiry was filed at the International Labour Conference. Since then, the situation with labour rights has worsened.
The Fijian workers need our continued support. The ITUC has launched a campaign to establish an ILO Commission of Inquiry to investigate the systematic violations of trade union rights. IndustriALL calls on all its affiliates to support the ITUC campaign by contacting your governments and convincing them to act in favour of the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry in the March 2014 session of the ILO Governing body. The details as well as the model letters for contacting your governments are available on the ITUC website http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/circular_no_02_-_commission_of_inquiry_ilo_fiji-eng.pdf.