No response from police on application for permit to march and rally- FTUC National Secretary

The delay in processing the application for permit and lack of response from the police raises serious questions about the efficiency of the police department. Several emails and daily follow up calls after the expiry of 7 days proved futile as staff referred all queries to the Commissioner of Police who was not reachable. Some of our calls were also not picked up as we try to obtain a response to our application.

Today we have submitted this letter to Brigadier-General, Mr. Sitiveni Tukaituraga Qiliho  expressing  our  concern on the ongoing delay  in the processing of our permit application for a protest march and rally.

The Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) granted its consent for use of the Suva streets on Monday, 8 July, 2019. Similarly, the Suva City Council granted approval for the use the Sukuna Park on Friday, 12 July, 2019.

The application for a permit to hold a protest march and rally at Sukuna Park on the 10th of August, was lodged on Monday, 1st of July, 2019. It has now been 35 days since the application was first filed and we are just 4 days away from our planned protests.

This planned march and rally is planned to advocate on the  six campaigns of FTUC.  These 6 issues are as follows:

1. National Minimum Wage
2. Delay in Labour law Reforms
3. Right to Strike
4. Vatukoula Strike
5. FASA Issues
6. Opposing Unilateral imposition of Individual Contracts

These are very fundamental rights of every worker in Fiji.

We urge the police department to expedite the processing and approval of our permit application so that we have it in hand by early this week in exercising our fundamental rights this Saturday, 10^thAugust, 2019.

Felix Anthony

National Secretary