Stricter regulations on Fijian employers incoming as the Fijian government introduces a new Employment Relations Bill

By Ruth Garry and Esha Sharma

The Employment Relations (Amendment) Bill 2025 (Bill) was tabled in the Fijian Parliament August 2025. The Bill proposes to make numerous amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2007 (Act), the main piece of employment legislation in the country. The amendments are wide-reaching, the culmination of many iterations of the Bill previously introduced in Parliament and over a decade of consultation with non-government stakeholders.

We have summarised some of the key proposed amendments below, noting that the Bill itself is far more extensive and should be read for full context.

Expanded powers for labour officers and inspectors

Under current legislation, labour officers and inspectors only have general powers to enter, inspect and examine a workplace, and generally cannot enter workplaces without consent from the occupier. The Bill proposes to give the Permanent Secretary, labour officers and inspectors the power to enter and inspect any place of a business during working hours if there are reasonable grounds to believe that it is necessary to do so. This change will enable inspectors to enter any business not just workplaces and also broadens the threshold for entry upon reasonable grounds. The officers also have enlarged powers to remove any documents from the premises and take samples to be submitted for lab testing. Perhaps most significantly, the Bill gives officers and inspectors more expansive powers to issue demand and fixed penalty notices, including being able to issue fixed penalty notices of up to FJD 1,000 to be paid within strict timeframes of not less than 21 days after notice has been served, for a wider range of offences compared to the general FJD 100 limit under Schedule 8 of the Act.

In practice, these new provisions provide labour officers and inspectors wide discretion in how they enforce the Act. Even if businesses do not give their consent, officers and inspectors can enter any of their workspaces, and at the discretion of the individual officer or inspector penalty notices can be issued and documents taken. As the new amendments do not include provisions that check the power of officers and inspectors, it is unlikely that businesses would be able to challenge these discretionary decisions made against them.

Unfair Dismissal Sections

The Bill introduces provisions that protect against unfair dismissals. Under the current version of the Act, the only means for an employee to hold their employer accountable for unfair dismissal is under the general right of workers to bring an “employment grievance” procedure. In contrast, the Bill proposes far more structured unfair dismissal provisions. Under the new provisions, for an unfair dismissal claim to be successful an employee will need to provide evidence of the following three components:

1.     a dismissal occurring;

2.     the dismissal being harsh, unjust or unreasonable; and

3.     the dismissal not being a case of genuine redundancy.

“Dismissal” and “genuine redundancy” both have specific meanings as defined in the Bill. For a dismissal to be “harsh, unjust or unreasonable”, the Bill sets out a list of factors that the tribunal or court must take into account. Broadly, these factors consider whether there was a valid reason (either related to performance or otherwise) for the dismissal to occur and whether the procedure followed prior to the dismissal was fair.

Many of the proposed provisions are similar to the Australian Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). While the provisions do certainly provide more robust protection for the worker, it remains to be seen whether introducing legislation from a much larger economy would be appropriate and bespoke for Fiji’s context.

For businesses, the Bill means increased regulatory pressures. Employers would need to ensure that they comply with the numerous criteria that the amendments introduce before dismissing an employee, or else risk having to pay remedies associated with an unfair dismissal application. For small businesses, who are the majority of employers in Fiji, having enough resources and legal awareness to comply with these provisions may be difficult.

Redundancy Period

The Bill proposes to increase the period that employers must notify and consult their employees before making them redundant from 30 days to 60 days. In addition, minimum redundancy pay has increased from one week’s wages per year of service to 3 months and not less than two weeks’ wages per year of service.

While these changes will no doubt dissuade many employers from being quick to consider redundancy, they may also be a hindrance for businesses that genuinely need to go through organisational changes in order to either survive or to grow.

Other changes

Aside from the above proposed amendments, some other amendments include:

• the imposition of criminal penalties and fines for employer breaches of different provisions, including offences such as publishing the personal information of employees and engaging in actions that result in a worker not getting the full benefit of payment due to them;

• more robust sexual discrimination laws; and

• the imposition of a bargaining fee for workers to pay trade unions that they are not part of the equivalent of 12 months’ subscription if they benefit from a term or condition in a collective agreement that the trade union negotiated.

Next Steps

The Bill proposes to make far-reaching changes to the current Act and the overall landscape of employment law in Fiji. As can be seen in our exploration of some of the key amendments, most of the changes are centred around bolstering protection of employees and increasing the supervisory power of labour officers and inspectors appointed under the Act. While it is certainly necessary to improve labour protections as the economy in Fiji continues to develop and grow, questions surround whether some proposed amendments are appropriate for Fiji’s employers, the majority of whom need a lot of legal support and resources in order to stay compliant with the introduced rules under the Bill. It remains to be seen if any further changes will be made to the Bill before it is passed by Parliament.

If your business requires assistance regarding navigating through these legislative changes or employment regulatory compliance in general throughout the Pacific, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.