THE Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) and the National Union of Workers (NUW) have agreed upon three matters that were part of the 14 pending issues, NUW general secretary Felix Anthony told the arbitration court after representatives from WAF and NUW appeared before puisne judge Yohan Liyanage in Suva on Monday.
Mr Anthony informed the court that these three matters included:
- sporting leave;
- acting allowances; and
- sewer allowances for its members.
The matter was brought to the arbitration court after NUW had claimed that 2900 workers had their contracts terminated on April 30 this year by WAF.
He said WAF had not been forthright in providing information to the union and this included the job evaluation report (JER).
He said this was the matter the court would have to determine.
He said the NUW believed that they were under the collective agreement and WAF recognised the union as the sole bargaining agent on all matters relating to terms and conditions of employment, wages and salary.
Meanwhile, in the last court sitting, WAF lawyer Gul Fatima informed the court that the JER had been complied with after the completion of the job evaluation exercise (JEE) had been finalised and had been handed over to the union as JEE was one of the 14 pending issues.
She informed the court that the terms and reference of the report contained various matters and those that were relevant only to the union were released.
The arbitration court had also directed (WAF) to provide a list of projects and workers required for these projects to the NUW by August 7.
However, it was confirmed by Mr Anthony that they had not received the list until now.
He said there were other matters regarding the contracts that were being issued to workers, members of the union which all came under dispute of rights and should be dealt with the Ministry of Labour and the Employment Relations Tribunal (ERT) and not the arbitration court.
Mr Liyanage has issued a directive for the matters relating to the dispute of rights be heard before the ERT.
The matter will now be heard on September 3.
