Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Employment, Productivity, and Industrial Relations, Osea Cawaru, says an outcome of investigations on the Kokomo Private Island case will be determined by next Thursday.

This he said was the end of the normal 20-days of due process the ministry took to investigate cases of reported restructures within an organisation.

This follows claims of unfair dismissal of close to 60 employees from the resort in Kadavu who had their contracts terminated earlier this month.

According to their notice of termination, the reason was on the basis of redundancy due to adverse economic effects affecting the resort’s payroll.

“We received the report from the management of their restructure on January 20 and the investigation of the report will go on till February 20,” Mr Cawaru said.

“The ministry has those 20 days to carry out its investigations thoroughly.

“They had reported it to us and we are investigating it right now.

“By February 20, we will be able to find out more on the cause of this termination.”

This he said was all part of the due process.

“Under the legislation, if you are to do any restructuring of any organisation you have to update the ministry.

“Every business goes through a number of certainties at some point, but it is the responsibility of the employer to report any restructure or redundancy plans before they do it.

“That is what the management of Kokomo Private Island has done.”

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