I don't know the first speech was pretty inspirational, but pretty much the same speech that was given by every single administration leading up to the IG. It would be nice if one of the administrations actually pulled it off one day.
The second article was pretty spot on and really there isn't much any administration in Fiji present or previous could do about the situation, somethings are beyond any one's control. But I will admit one thing-the wage increase came at a bad time and it is not that most people wouldn't want to give their employees a raise, just not now, so that will contribute to layoffs and reduced hours so the employers in the various sectors can stay in business. I have heard of some resorts where the employees have gotten together and volunteerred to go on half wages for the moment so that no one will get laid off or where employees have not been paid for the last couple of weeks. It speaks volumes about the loyalty of the workers of Fiji combined with their fear of losing gainful employment in the future even if they are working for free or half now. All of the layoffs are not just happening in Fiji, however no other country is putting forth pay raises during this global economic crisis. That was just not a smart stroke for the Big picture.
The same goes for the full pay on maternity leave, a lot of companies can't afford to take the chance to hire young women at this time and they will be the first ones to get laid off. That combined with the strong Catholicism where family planning is discouraged really does make it an issue for employers. So these new regulations although conceptually good for the employees, this was just not the right time to implement them. Realistically there is only so much money to go around and it comes to a point where you can't squeeze anymore out of an industry. THis only serves to increase the poverty statistics with layoffs and reduced hours, and the others that were lucky enough to be kept see a slight increase in their standard of living. So I imagine the initial reaction to this will be an increase in unemployed and poverty levels probably by at least 10% depending on the industries over the next couple of quarters. Which is why some employees are going proactive with volunteering for half pay, or continuing to work for no pay, which is a sad state of affairs.

Yes I do feel sorry for all the people everywhere and this article articulates why it is probably not a great idea to do wage increases in Fiji at this time. California would NOT be considered one of the poorer states in the US and this is what the state has to do.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California's first-ever furloughs began Friday with more than 200,000 state workers expected to stay home without pay amid the state's fiscal crisis.

Among the offices forced to close Friday were the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Consumer Affairs. The governor's Office of Emergency Services also was dark as part of the cash-saving move ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Critical and revenue-generating agencies remained open, including fire stations, parks and employment centers that process unemployment insurance claims. California's unemployment rate is 9.3 percent, a 15-year high.

At the state Department of Transportation, a handful of engineers showed up to work without pay because they didn't want to get behind on projects they said were important to public safety.

Stan Slavin, an electrical engineer working on a traffic project in the San Francisco Bay area, said his partners at local agencies will be on the job so he was, too.

State agencies scrambled in the days before the furloughs took effect to avoid confusion for the public, such as people trying to register vehicles or obtain professional licenses.

Two-a-day-a-month
Schwarzenegger ordered the two-day-a-month furloughs, reducing the average state worker's salary by 9.2 percent, as he and lawmakers try to solve the state's $42 billion budget shortfall.

The governor had hoped his order would apply to some 238,000 state employees, but each of the seven other constitutional officers have said they will not comply. Employees of the Legislature are not under his authority.

Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Hoch, said the administration was prepared to sue the state controller if he did not reduce paychecks for more than 15,000 workers in the other constitutional offices, which include the attorney general, secretary of state and insurance commissioner.

A judge who affirmed Schwarzenegger's authority to order the furloughs said his ruling did not apply to statewide elected officials because they were not a party to the lawsuit. The administration has maintained that employees of constitutional offices are covered by the furlough order.

Doors to about 180 DMV offices were locked Friday. Some people said the state gave little notice to the public about the furloughs, which will continue on the first and third Fridays of each month through June 2010.

"They don't have any signs telling us about Friday," said Ingrid Dela Cruz of Sacramento, who was inside a Sacramento DMV office on Thursday.

In fact, there were plenty of signs, but they were posted in locations invisible to most customers because they were hidden behind sliding glass doors.

A billion in savings?
Schwarzenegger's administration estimated that cutting worker hours would save the state $1.3 billion over the next year-and-a-half.

The state decided to keep some 250 career centers open after previously announcing they would be closed. The centers are where the unemployed get information about job training and benefits.

Labor leaders said the furloughs could have been prevented. Jim Zamora, spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, said the administration did not respond to the union's latest contract proposal, which he said included alternatives.

"More than a week ago, Local 1000 presented the governor's negotiators with a deal that would have prevented the closure of state offices, created an orderly, flexible and manageable furlough process, prevented chaos and saved the state hundreds of millions of dollars," Zamora said in a statement.

Lynelle Jolley, whose office is negotiating with the union, declined to respond.

Some employees questioned whether the furloughs would result in taxpayer savings.

Filling in to keep up
Dan Gurule, a police officer at the state mental hospital in Norwalk, said the state would have to pay overtime at 24-hour facilities to those workers who backfill the shifts of people on furlough.

Five state mental hospitals and 33 adult prisons are required to provide constant care to patients and inmates.

"Somebody has to fill in my position," Gurule said. "We still have to have a minimum staffing. That's going to be someone on overtime, being paid time-and-a-half."

But the furlough may not be all that bad for state workers.

Squaw Valley ski resort at Lake Tahoe was offering $30 lift tickets - a $49 savings - on furlough days to state employees who show a valid state identification card or recent pay stub. Boreal ski resort also has a promotion in which state employees can ski or snowboard every Friday for the rest of the season for $20.

Sorry gang I had a whole rebuttal concerning the pay raises and the whole post became moot once I read that the pay raises will go into effect on July 1st. NOW this is a much better idea that I think will work for everyone quite nicely in the meantime.
But if misery loves company friends from Ireland, Denmark, England, Switzerland, Sweden not including the regulars in the USA, Australia and New Zealand have been in touch and this global economy is crushing everybody in a very bad way, even Dentists businesses have slowed down, seriously if you have a bad toothache going to the dentist is kind of a matter of necessity, its not like passing the bakery or deciding to delay a vacation. So the world will live through the crises we will all just be toothless by the end of it. . .

I have a crazy idea. You know how some of the largest problems in Fiji are what to do with lease lands, which comprises at least 85% of the available land in fiji, housing and affording children's education. The bulk of the economy is supported by small businesses and even the large ones aren't that large in the world arena.
So we have these blocks of land both large and small that are available for lease or Govt land. Or even take that low income housing that is/was toppling down in the Suva area. There are many ways to work this out either via apartments of simple houses.
Let's start with the toppling down low income housing since I am assuming that it is on Govt, land, but this concept would also work for a private contractor. SO the Govt or whoever comes and builds it, sells the apartments to various businesses who could in turn provide staff quarters for their workers. This takes care of the construction costs. But there must be an incentive for the business owner who is then credited either by a larger tax write off or having a slightly lower wage scale since they are providing free housing to their staff.
The workers then have the security of a place to live as long as they are working for the company leaving them to only worry about food and schooling. Depending on how many units the business owner has would depend on the percentage they would need to pay towards the lease which in turn would revert to a tax expense credit. The people living in the apartments would be responsible for it's upkeep just as if it were there own privately owned home OR it could have a homeowners committee made up of the various business owners that have invested in it.
The same would be true for providing educational expenses for the children of their employees, either they could get a lower wage scale or a tax credit. Personally I think the lower wage scale is better because of the nature of business and how it fluctuates, with a smaller wage scale the employer could then provide more jobs, the workers have their most serious concerns of education and housing built into the job then they only have to worry about food and possibly utilities. For those workers that have their own homes and no children, they would of course have the benefit of full wages.
If the business owner ever wanted to sell his business the housing would be part of the package, or in the worst case scenario if they went bankrupt that would still remain an assett that they could sell.
Maybe I am crazy but it seems like a win win situation to me.