Fiji Sugar Report

Plenty of Grievances Aired Fiji Sugar Report Due End of July

The inquiry into ways and means of maintaining peace in the Fiji sugar industry, which opened in Suva on May 25, was concluded there at the beginning of July. The recommendations of the Board of Inquiry are expected to be available by the end of July.

THE inquiry was the result of a dispute between one section of the sugar industry workers— the mill workers who are members of the Fiji Sugar Industry Em ployees’ Association—and the em ployers, the Colonial Sugar Refin ing Co. Ltd.

Whatever the recommendations, the inquiry was valuable in that it publicly aired a very wide range of grievances, real or imaginary, by both parties.

The Board of Inquiry permitted presentation of submissions over a very wide field, whether backed by firm evidence or not. All statements were made under privilege, and all hearings were in public except on one occasion near the end of the inquiry when the spokesman for the Company and the union’s spokes man were the only persons present before the Board, while the ability of the employer to pay higher wages was investigated.

The Board of Inquiry consisted of four members: Mr. G. G.

Honeyman, QC, from the UK, chair- (Over)

man; and Ratu K. K. Mara, Mr.

P. K. Bhindi. and Mr. D. M. N.

McFarlane, all of Fiji.

Union Argument

Beyond its many petty grievances, the main line taken by the union, through its general president. Mr.

B. D. Lakshman, was that wages paid in the sugar industry should be based simply on ability to pay, and should not be related to the inability of some other Fiji industries or employers to pay a similar amount. A fair share of the fruits of the sugar industry should be the only criterion, he said.

The CSR Company maintained on the other hand, through first its chief manager, Mr. J. C. Potts (who entered hospital on June 23 fol lowing a heart attack), and later through its Mr. L. M. Sherwood, that sugar wages must be tied in with the general ability of all Fiji employers to pay.

Mr. G. G. Honeyman indicated towards the end of the hearings that on the information which had been given the Board of Inquiry would not be disposed to recom mend a minimum rate of pay for the whole Colony, The union had submitted that on the basis of cost-of-living figures for prisoners in the Colony, the barest minimum wage should be 3/per hour as compared with the pre sent 1/5 ruling in this branch of the sugar industry. A reduction of working hours to 40 per week, and certain other improvements were also sought.

On behalf of the Company. Mr.

Sherwood said that inability to pay a just and reasonable wage had never been pleaded in these hear ings. His Company held that there should be some machinery set up for the fixing of a Colony-wide minimum wage and that any other negotiations should be based on that.