• November 29, 2024

November 29, 2024.

PRESS RELEASE  

The Fiji National Provident Fund needs to ensure that the rights of workers employed by entities that it has invested in are respected.

We raise concern about the rights of workers employed by Aspen Medical – Fiji in particular, which is managing the Lautoka and Ba hospitals. The FTUC supports the Construction, Energy, Timber Workers Union of Fiji (CETWUF) in its fight for the rights of workers at the two hospitals. We expect entities such as ASPEN to understand that the workers of Fiji, through the FNPF, own a substantial shareholding in the company and therefore should do the right thing for workers. We call on the management of Aspen Medical – Fiji to get to the table and negotiate with the union and resolve the workers grievances without further escalation of the dispute and reach an amicable settlement.

CETWUF filed its Log of Claims with Aspen on behalf of its members early this year for improvements in the terms and conditions of work, and for a raise in wages and salary. Unfortunately, Aspen has refused to hold discussions with CETWUF, leaving the union members with no option but to conduct secret ballots for industrial action and possibly go on strike if their grievances are not resolved.

We understand that FNPF and Australian-owned Aspen Medical are shareholders of Health Care (Fiji) Pte Ltd (HCF), which is trading as Aspen Medical. The Minister for Finance revealed in Parliament in June that FNPF was “ordered” to take an 80 per cent stake in HCF as part of a Public-Private Partnership deal with Aspen Medical. Yet we understand that FNPF has no direct say or oversight in the operations of the business. How is it that workers funds are invested by FNPF without any oversight?

The Minister had also said that the Government was spending almost $10 million a month to pay for services rendered to patients by the two Aspen-managed hospitals. This is an incredible amount and there needs to be accountability and oversight. It is time that FNPF considered a national medical scheme for its members and families with additional contribution from members and subsidised by the Government.

FTUC also calls for a full investigation into this investment and whether proper due diligence was conducted and who “ordered” FNPF to take the 80 per cent stake as reported by the media and whether that was an abuse of office. What returns, if any, did FNPF expect from this venture or did it simply invest to bail the previous Government out of the mess in our health services. If that was the case, then the Board members who approved such an investment must be answerable and taken to task.  It is time for FNPF to be transparent on this issue and others which may have been subject to such political orders. The workers need to know if losses are expected and to what extent. We also question the role of the Reserve Bank of Fiji which has oversight of FNPF.

Felix Anthony

National Secretary, FTUC.