* Tuesday Update

Wages Council chair Fr Kevin Barr has been assured by the Interim PM that the wage regulations order will come into effect on July 1st. (see earlier posting Bainimarama's About-Face.) Fr Barr said employers have been complaining about the wage increases for the past 10 years. "The business community is jumping up and down with the garment industry threatening job losses but none of them have presented audited accounts to the council." The PM permanent secretary, Parmesh Chand, said people should be mindful that no other government had introduced such a programme that looked at the wage increase comprehensively. A FTUC advertisement called on the PM not to defer the award and also called on employers to think about the suffering of the poor. (Condensed from Fiji Times)

The NZ Media7 programme on Fiji is now available on the Pacific Media Centre YouTube site so it can be seen in Fiji if you want to point your colleagues to it. http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2009/02/media7-bares-all-on-fiji.html