The paper gives a detailed account of industrial relations issues as public entities in Fiji journey into reforms. Though given little attention locally, what accompanies this journey is the repeated industrial relation concerns. This theme is empirically exemplified by a reformed Government Commercial Company (GCC) (Government Shipyard and Public Shipways), based on in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews, relevant published studies and archival data. A GCC is a wholly government-owned enterprise in Fiji and is generally financed through government equity and/or debt. The focus of this paper is on the interplay between industrial relations and public enterprise reforms. This paper has two goals. Detailed account of industrial relations issues of the Government Shipyard is presented as the first aim. The second aim unveils the height of superficial or one-way consultations. Overall, while the Fijian public enterprise reform process entails changes in the `modus operandi' of public entities towards being more business-like in order to become profitable, industrial relations issues are impacted upon given that entities are unionized and definite changes do result in the way employee relations/unions are tackled and changed by the management/government. This paper suggests similar detailed empirical studies to be carried out between island nations and other reformed public enterprises to test its conclusion in different sites.

There is hardly any doubt that public enterprise reforms have taken the world by storm. Fiji, a developing small island economy, likewise, is no exception to it. This infamous coup-ridden island nation located at the heart of Pacific Ocean, is one of the most developed of the small island nations. Fiji has a multiracial population mix with major races being indigenous Fijians and Indians. It is endowed with forest, mineral and fish resources with a large subsistence sector. The major sources of foreign exchange are sugar exports, remittances from Fijians working abroad and a growing tourist industry. While the most recent military coup has dimmed the business climate attractiveness, the economy remains under the military rule of the self-appointed prime-ministership of Commodore Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama since the December 2006 bloodless coup. Fiji had suffered from coup syndrome with earlier coups staged in 1987 and 2000.

In Fiji, public enterprise reforms became the central pillar of state policy after the 1987 military coups. Fiji ranked one of the largest and most developed of the Pacific Islands until the mid-1980s. The process of reforms commenced mid-1980s but was delayed due to the uncertainty created in the economy following the two military coups in 1987. Fiji was in a steady economic position with import substitution policies and a small but growing manufacturing sector. Fiji pursued the import substitution policy since its independence in 1970. In 1987, it witnessed economic recession and Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) such as deregulation of the labor market (1989-removal of wage indexation), promotion of export-oriented policies (1989-Tax Free Factory Scheme) and public sector reforms (1990s). The beginnings of the policy shift from the import substitution strategy towards an export-oriented economy was clearly visible in 1984. To this end, the earliest major change emerging from the SAPs was the 1984 unilateral wage freeze imposed on the entire Fijian economy in an attempt to make the export-oriented industries more competitive. Subsequently, Fiji went through different phases of privatization after 1987.

The very first public sector reforms were implemented by targeting five state enterprises in the early 1990s. The first was the Post and Telecommunications Department which was initially corporatized as Fiji Post and Telecommunications Limited in January 1990 and later (1996) split into two companies namely, Telecom Fiji Limited and Post Fiji Limited, finally leading to the sale of majority shares of Telecom Fiji Ltd. Three other state enterprises were corporatized—these were Fiji Pine Commission (which was incorporated as Fiji Pine Limited in 1990), Ika Corporation which became Ika Corporation Limited in 1990, and the National Marketing Authority, which came to known as National Trading Corporation Limited in 1992. Ika and National Trading collapsed soon after. The final entity targeted was the Government Shipyard and Public Shipways which was corporatized, privatized and later nationalized.

Organizational Behavior Journal, Labor-Management, Government Commercial Company, Public Enterprise Reforms, Structural Adjustment Policies, Public Sector Reforms, Government Shipyard and Public Shipways, Commercial Orientation, Corporate Plans, Public Works Department, State-Owned Enterprises, Standard Redundancy Package, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Labor-Management Cooperation.