Chaudhry condemns airline decision

Listen to this article:

Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry. Picture: JOVESA NAISUA/FILE

Fiji Labour Party leader and former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry strongly condemned Fiji Airways decision to terminate 758 staff members, including 435 flight attendants on Monday.

“It is outrageous and grossly inhumane particularly when one considers that these staff members had made sacrifices to carry the airline through during its bad times,” he said.

“The employment of the terminated workers should have been maintained as the positions will be needed when flights resume.

“It seems the airline is taking unfair advantage of the situation with the intention of re-engaging them on lesser pay and conditions.

“Worse still, the airline breached an earlier undertaking with the Fiji Flight Attendants Trade Union, wherein it had promised to keep staff on at 70 per cent pay for three months until the end of June. It is guilty of bad faith.

“We are reliably informed that the union had even offered to let its members take leave without pay until the situation normalises. But this was not considered by management.”

Mr Chaudhry said he was reliably informed there was no consultation with the airline’s staff unions despite assurances given earlier by Fiji Airways management that unions would be consulted before any action was taken.

“Fiji Airways is a State-owned commercial entity. This sudden decision to terminate 50 per cent of its workforce sets a bad precedent.

“Government should have set a better example by retaining these workers on nominal pay or leave without pay instead of making them jobless.”

Array
(
    [post_type] => post
    [post_status] => publish
    [orderby] => date
    [order] => DESC
    [update_post_term_cache] => 
    [update_post_meta_cache] => 
    [cache_results] => 
    [category__in] => 1
    [posts_per_page] => 4
    [offset] => 0
    [no_found_rows] => 1
    [date_query] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [after] => Array
                        (
                            [year] => 2023
                            [month] => 12
                            [day] => 19
                        )

                    [inclusive] => 1
                )

        )

)