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Commercial Law Updates

Fiji Employment Law: when summary dismissal of an employee goes wrong

Sep 17, 2018 / by Ana Tuiwawa and Mary Muir posted in Fiji's Constitution, Fiji employment law, Dismissal, Summary dismissal, Fiji immigration law, Commercial lawyers Fiji, Fiji commercial lawyers

Pursuant to Fiji law, in situations of serious employee misconduct the employer has two choices, either:

  • a summary dismissal for cause (as set out in section 33 of the Employment Relations Act) when the employer is certain of the facts and those facts warrant immediate termination of employment; or
  • to undertake a disciplinary inquiry to ascertain all the facts and then, if those facts are proven, take appropriate disciplinary action that may include termination of employment, suspension from employment or written warning.

In both situations, the employer is acting “for cause” and, if the employer terminates the employee’s employment, must provide the employee with written reasons for the termination of employment at the time of termination.

In this employment law update we consider summary dismissal (on the spot termination without a disciplinary inquiry process) and note that a recent judgement of Sanjay Lal v Carpenters Fiji Limited (Sanjay Lal v Carpenters) issued from the Employment Relations Court (“ERC”) on 10 August 2018 provides some useful guidance from the ERC in relation to summary dismissal.

In a previous commercial legal update we provided some general information regarding the employer's duties relating to dismissing an employee for misconduct. This update can be found: here

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What is the effect of Fiji’s Online Safety Act, 2018?

Jul 9, 2018 / by Mary Muir and Emily Samuela posted in Fiji's Constitution, Fiji law, Fiji commercial law, Commercial lawyers Fiji, Online Safety Act Fiji, Cyber security Fiji

Connectivity has made the access to information easier in this modern age, but it has also led to the increase in harmful online behavior such as cyberbullying, cyber stalking, internet trolling and exposure to offensive or harmful content, amongst other things. After much debate, Fiji has introduced the Online Safety Act, 2018 (the “Act”) to promote online safety and deter adverse online behavior and misuse of personal information. While it was enacted on 18 May 2018, it will not come into effect until the commencement date is gazetted.

At the date of writing the Online Safety Act has not appeared in the Fiji Government Gazette and therefore the legislation is not, as yet, in force. We will amend this update when it is “gazetted”.

In this commercial law update, we consider how this newly-introduced Act is intended to work.

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