About PIoWR
Pacific Institute of Workplace Relations — Fair Conditions At Work
Who we are
The Pacific Institute of Workplace Relations (PIoWR) works for fair conditions for Pacific workers the region has too often overlooked: fishers and fishing-vessel crew, seasonal and horticulture workers, household and domestic workers, and the families on shore who wait for them and depend on their pay.
Our slogan says what we are for: Fair Conditions At Work.
Why PIoWR came about
Pacific fishers, seasonal and horticulture workers and domestic workers, and their families on shore, have long been neglected in workplace relations.
What they need to know about their rights is scattered, technical and rarely in Pacific languages. And workers need organisations that stand up and keep working on their conditions, not just give them a voice.
In Fiji, longline fishers needed a home. They are now joining the Fiji Maritime Union as a Fishers Branch, with PIoWR, through co-founder Mr Banati Sefeti, as General Secretary-designate.
Co-founders John Robert Simelum and Banati Sefeti built PIoWR as a consultant institute: to help unions stand, then step back so workers speak for themselves.
What we do
PIoWR is a consultant. We help national unions stand up — with their constitution, their registration, their office and their awareness work — and then we stay for the programmes that improve conditions.
We also help those unions connect into global union solidarity networks, so that workers who cross borders, like crew and seasonal workers, are not alone when they arrive somewhere new.
We do not own the unions we help. When a union can stand on its own, it speaks for itself.
Help them stand. Stay for the conditions.
Fiji is our first harbour
Our work begins in Fiji. Fiji is the first harbour, where PIoWR can learn, step by step, before helping workers elsewhere.
In Fiji, our first task is with fishers. Longline fishers are joining the new Fiji Maritime Union (FMU) as a Fishers Branch within the FMU mandate, and the Branch is being established. PIoWR remains the consultant and, through Mr Banati Sefeti, is to be the General Secretary of the FMU Fishers Branch.
Vanuatu is the planned next harbour. PIoWR has no offices outside Fiji. Unions in other Pacific countries do not come under PIoWR. Where they ask, we may help them register under their own country's law.
Who we work with
We take part in social dialogue — talks between government, employers and workers — because that is where lasting improvements usually begin. Conservation International — Fiji Programme supports the FMU Fishers Branch arrangement and is working with PIoWR in the coming weeks to help establish the Branch. No supporter owns the workers’ voice. We also meet with Fiji's Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Workplace Relations, employers in the fishing industry, and the International Labour Organization (ILO). See Meetings for where PIoWR is attending and what we are watching.
How we work
- Workers first. Our pages are written for workers, in plain language.
- Facts, with sources. We link to the law, the scheme rules or the report behind what we say. If we cannot check something, we say so.
- Consent. We never publish a worker's story without their written consent.
- Local unions. Global solidarity. Fair conditions.
Team
Banati Sefeti — Lead voice of PIoWR and transitional General Secretary. Through him, PIoWR is to be General Secretary of the FMU Fishers Branch.
More team profiles coming soon.
Get in touch
Write to PIoWR · Governance · Newsletter
Pacific Institute of Workplace Relations — Fair Conditions At Work · Suva · Fiji · www.piowr.org