The Public Emergency Regulations (PER) of 2009 gave unchecked powers to the regime to ban much public assembly in Fiji. In 2011, the regime selectively denied requests for meetings, using the excuse that the meeting convenors were opposed to government policy. In other cases, the police revoked previously-awarded permission and then broke up the meetings.
In the most extreme case, the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) President, Daniel Urai, and Nitin Goundar, an organiser for the National Union of Hospitality, Catering and Tourism Industries Employees (NUHCTIE), were arrested, detained and charged under the PER for meeting with trade unionists at the hotel where they worked to prepare for collective bargaining. The case remains pending at year end, though the government has yet to produce the required disclosures – including the identity of the person or persons accusing the two of violating the PER (which is required in order to proceed with the case).
It remains unclear whether those charged under the PER will continue to be prosecuted following its repeal. Trade unionists reported that the government instituted a de facto ban on trade union meetings immediately following the visit of Guy Ryder, ILO Executive Director of the Standards and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Sector, in August 2011. Essentially all requests are either denied or simply never acted upon before the date of the proposed meeting. Far from being just a nuisance, the ban has had far reaching implications on industrial relations (except in those very few cases where employers continued to cooperate with the unions in spite of the PER).