The Daily Examiner.

Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (pictured) says the 320 civil servants who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the ‘No Jab, No Job’ Policy, have been allowed to reapply and come back.

He told Parliament on Wednesday, Government had reversed the previous government’s decision and introduced legislative reform to address the workers’ concerns.

“Three hundred and twenty families were affected when the policy was implemented,” he said.

“The Health and Safety at Work (General Workplace Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 now allows the terminated employees to reapply for vacant positions, enabling them to resume employment to support their families and contribute their expertise to Government once again.”

He said there had been a high turnover of personnel in the civil service.

“The loss of skilled personnel created gaps in government institutions and the pool of greener pastures that we have had to deal with, with our highly qualified civil servants being drawn to so-called greener pastures abroad.

“That will continue to be a problem. Our people do very well. I must say that our civil servants serve us very well also, and by their service here, they are noticed by regional governments, particularly Australia and New Zealand, during international conferences, see how well suited our civil servants would be in their own civil service. That is how we lose them.”

Mr. Rabuka said there had been some sense of no job security in the past.

“Hopefully, we can resolve that with a better working relationship with the political government and the civil servants and also the civil servants among themselves with their senior supervisors and managers.”