Workplace policies must go beyond sexual harassment: Kumar

Employers must ensure workplace policies address more than sexual harassment, with the Ministry of Employment calling for clear procedures to deal with discrimination, violence and other forms of harassment.

Deputy Secretary Operations Atish Kumar said businesses needed to review their internal policies to ensure employees had appropriate channels to raise complaints and resolve workplace grievances.

Speaking during HOTEC 2026 in Nadi on Thursday, Mr Kumar said sexual harassment and other forms of workplace harassment required appropriate responses.

He referred to the International Labour Organization's Convention 190 on violence and harassment, highlighting the need for employers to address different forms of misconduct in the workplace.

Mr Kumar said tensions could arise between colleagues and employees needed clear avenues to raise grievances when problems could not be resolved.

He urged employers to establish effective complaint-handling procedures and ensure workers understood how to use them.

“Awareness and training should be provided to new employees, including interns and part-time workers, as well as full-time staff,” he said.

Mr Kumar stressed that workplace policies should not simply remain in written documents but needed to be communicated and implemented.

He encouraged businesses to review their workplace programmes and strengthen their approach to employee welfare.

Preventing costly disputes

Mr Kumar also urged employers and trade unions to strengthen collective agreements to prevent workplace disagreements from escalating into costly disputes.

He said collective agreements should clearly establish employment terms and conditions and provide workable procedures for resolving grievances.

Many employment disputes could be avoided if businesses followed the processes already provided under the law and their agreements, he said.

For unionised employees, dispute-resolution mechanisms contained in collective agreements should be followed where applicable.

Where an agreement did not contain such procedures, the relevant provisions of the Employment Relations Act provided mechanisms for resolving disputes.

Mr Kumar said employers should not assume that registering a collective agreement meant the ministry or courts would determine its contents.

He explained that a collective agreement was an agreement between an employer and a registered trade union covering employment terms and conditions.

He also discussed registered memoranda of agreement, which could be used when employers and unions were unable to reach agreement on every issue during negotiations.

Mr Kumar emphasised the importance of mutual respect and good employment relations, saying agreements needed to be understood and implemented by both parties.

He urged employers and unions to establish clear procedures for addressing disagreements before they escalated into formal disputes.