Legislative Council Paper No. 19 of 1969, Annual Report of the Ministry of Labour, 1968.
2.
Registration of employee organizations under the Ordinance is compulsory.
3.
Details of union membership are not published. The estimates are based, primarily, on interviews and discussions with trade union leaders in Fiji.
4.
See Legislative Council Paper No. 19 of 1969—Ministry of Labour, Annual Report, 1968, p. 2.
5.
Wage-earning employment in the manufacturing sector of the economy expanded from 6,380 in 1956 to 9,191 in 1968. Wage employment in the sugar-milling sector of manufacturing industry was relatively static during this period, and the expansion of employment was mainly in the areas covered by the National Union of Factory and Commercial Workers.
6.
The original registration data of the Suva Fire Brigademen's Association was November 22, 1944. It was the first employees' union registered under the Industrial Associations Ordinance of 1942, but its membership has never exceeded 50. Its industrial activities have been limited to the Suva Fire Station and it has never participated in any of the broader aspects of union activity such as the Fiji Trade Union Congress, government committees, etc.
7.
The Industrial Associations Ordinance, 1942, was the first law providing for the registration, control and protection of labour organizations.
8.
The current Public Employees' Union has been registered under a number of different names during its continuous history which dates back to 1947. These were: North Western Public Works and Allied Workers' Union (1947), Viti Levu Public Works Employees' Union (1949), Fiji Public Works Department Employees' Union (1950), Public Works and Allied Workers' Union (1960), and Public Employees' Union (1964).
9.
Nand Kishor, one of the leaders instrumental in the formation of the union in 1939, was elected secretary in 1942 and president in 1944.
10.
The Fiji Airport Employees' Union (registered 29/6/51) which later became the International Airport Employees' Union.
11.
The Fiji Industrial Workers' Congress had been formed in 1952 as a central organization for Fiji trade unions. Pandit Ami Chandra, instrumental in its formation and the first president, was killed in a plane crash at Singapore on his way to attend a trade union study course in the United Kingdom. The congress changed its title to Fiji Trade Union Congress in 1966.
12.
Legislative Council Paper No. 31 of 1950, Annual Report of the Department of Labour for 1949, p. 3.
13.
Ibid., p. 3.
14.
Legislative Council Paper No. 29 of 1953, Annual Report of the Department of Labour for 1952.
15.
Legislative Council Paper No. 18 of 1954, Annual Report of the Department of Labour for 1953.
16.
Legislative Council Paper No. 15 of 1963, Annual Report of the Department of Labour for 1962, p. 10.
17.
At that date known as the Public Works and Allied Workers' Union.
18.
A detailed statement of the events in Suva in December 1959, the "Suva Riots", is found in Legislative Council Paper No. 10 of 1960, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances in Suva, December 1959. A general analysis of background issues is F.J. West, "Background to the Fijian Riots, 1960", Australian Quarterly, Vol. XXXII, No. 1.
19.
Legislative Council Paper No. 10 of 1960, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Disturbances in Suva, 1959. p. 22.
20.
Ibid., p. 27.
21.
A system of localized ministers had been adopted in 1967, hence the Ministry of Labour replaces the department
22.
Legislative Council Paper No. 19 of 1969, Annual Report of the Ministry of Labour for 1968, p. 6.
23.
For example: The Printing and Allied Trades Union (referred to earlier) was formed as a separate union in 1967 under this policy of industry unionism. Total membership never exceeded 100 and in early 1970 the Register of Trade Unions announced that the union was moribund and deregistration was pending.
24.
Legislative Council Paper No. 34 of 1967.
25.
Report of an Arbitration Tribunal with regard to dispute between Qantas and the Airport, Hotel and Catering Workers' Union, February 1968.
26.
Apisai Tora (president of the union) had been a Fijian candidate in the 1963 elections—the first time the indigenous Fijians had been able to exercise a direct vote to elect their representatives to the Legislative Council. He was also one of the few Fijians active in the formation and operation of the National Federation Party, the Indian-dominated opposition party in the Fiji legislature.
