Commercial Law Updates

The Immigration (Amendment) Act 2023 and the Immigration (Exemption by Descent) Order 2023 came into effect on 10 October 2023. These legal amendments extend the category of persons who are entitled to enter, reside and work in Fiji without a permit.

The Immigration (Amendment) Act 2023 applies to any person who is registered in the Vola ni Kawa Bula (VKB) - an official record of indigenous or iTaukei Fijians born in Fiji and maintained by the iTaukei Lands and Fisheries Commission that record entitlement by birthright to land and associated resource rights.

The Immigration (Exemption by Descent) Order 2023 applies to any person who is not a citizen of Fiji but is a child, grandchild or great grandchild of any person that was a citizen of Fiji on 10 October 1970 - defined as a (“principle citizen”).

In this legal bulletin we provide a brief explanation of these legislative changes and include important points to note about their application and effect.

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

In our Commercial Law update issued on 28 January, 2018 we provided an update on the policy changes made by the Immigration Department regarding work permits which can be found here

This further update specifically addresses recent policy changes by the Immigration Department to the 14 days business permit that may, once issued, be extended up to 3 months. This policy change by Fiji's Immigration Department means that it has now reverted to its original policy that enables 14 days business permits be extended for a period of up to 3 months by operation of section 9 (2) (c) of the Immigration Act 2003. 

As of 16 January 2018, the Fiji Immigration Department will no longer accept the following applications:

• Short term work permit application – a type of permit given to an applicant for a term up to six months where the employer can show that the applicant’s expertise and knowledge is required urgently in Fiji; and
• Extension of 14-day business visa – an extension of up to three (3) months granted by operation of Section 9 (2) (c) of the Immigration Act 2003.

We briefly update on this change in Fiji Immigration policy.