FIJI (29 June 2003) -- Fiji's privately owned luxury resort Turtle Island is now being seen as a difficult place to work. The resort is often described as the Pacific's most beautiful honeymoon setting. But the resort's management is being prosecuted for failing to meet a government order to recognize the trade union representing many of the workers. It's also accused of not paying award rates: While couples are charged US$1,400 per night to stay there, employees are paid around 90 US cents an hour. It was the location for the film the Blue Lagoon, its won environmental and scuba diving tourism awards and its been praised for its sponsorship of free medical clinics and yet its owner is in court for refusing to recognize the rights of his workers to form a union. The Fijian Labor Ministry has charged Richard Evenson, the owner of the famous Turtle Island resort, for failing to comply with a compulsory order issued in January to recognize the union. It's a first for the hotel industry and is seen by National Hotel Union General Secretary Timoce Naivaluwaga as an important test case. "The outcome of this," he said, "will also prove to the other employers that when unions have organized their workers that they must give them the recognition that we are rightly and legally afforded for by the government." It can cost US$1,500 a night to stay at the five star Turtle Island resort. Richard Evenson privately owns the island and it hosts just 14 couples at a time in absolute luxury. According to pay slips, some of its workers earn F$1.65 an hour. That's US90 cents, or F$66 a week - around F$3,500 dollars a year. It's a legal minimum wage but almost half the union rate operating at other hotels. Turtle Island General Manager Rob Bedsford said he pays four dollars an hour and he disputes the union's other claims. "We have recognized the union," he claims. "In fact I attended a meeting with them yesterday in complete recognition in order to try and start negotiating their log of claims and we've stated that all along and we've invited them to the island and to this date other than the meeting I attended yesterday which was an absolute disaster, they haven't been forth coming." | | Why was the meeting a disaster? "Well I went along to start negotiations on their log of claims and they suddenly produced a new document they wanted us to sign prior to commencing those negotiations," said Bedsford. "It was a document that was totally illegal, that is not required by law." Bedsford denies there's been any intimidation on the island. "Absolutely not," he said. "I mean Richard, who owns the island, is like a father to most of these people who come to him and talk to him about their personal problems. They look to him for advice; they look to him for assistance. "He is a very benevolent person within his community here and highly respected and regarded." Both hotel management and the union accuse each other of intimidation. Despite this, the union said its signed up 86 members or half the work force while adding that over a two and a half year period 55 have been fired because they support unionization and that others have been forced to sign documents to say they won't join." "What the management has done is in fact promoting the internal in-house union to the workers that they must join that instead of joining us," said Union secretary Timoce Naivaluwaga. "Because the in-house union is controlled by them anyway and then for them to claim that they are not paying the lower wages I must say that is complete nonsense." The Fijian Trade Union Congress has bought into the dispute saying exploitation in the form of long hours and poor conditions is the result of the resort being run as the private domain of the owner. National secretary Felix Anthony said the wages at Turtle Island are half the 135 dollars a week set as Fiji's poverty line in 1997. "Most of the workers there live below the poverty line," said Anthony, "and what concerns us even more is the fact that Turtle Island resort is an internationaly renowned resort and all dealings on the island are by US dollars. "The only time the Fiji currency is used is when it comes to pay workers and we believe this is grossly unfair." SOURCE - Radio Australia |
