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Source: Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (Suva)
Fiji's Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, has announced that Fiji's Cabinet had decided to amend the "Employment Relations Promulgation Act" and thus remove 2 annual public holidays from the list of official annual public holidays in Fiji.
The 2 canceled public holidays are the National Youth Day public holiday, and the public holiday commemorating the Anniversary of Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna's Death. The rest of the annual public holidays, as most recently announced (03-Jun-2009), will remain unchanged, according to Prime Minister Bainimarama.
The Prime Minister justified his choice of public holidays to be canceled based on the fact that Ratu Sukuna Day and National Youth Day have only been public holidays since 1991 and 2004, respectively, while all other remaining public holidays have been observed since independence.
In fact, the Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Day public holiday, was originally declared as a one-off public holiday (21-Apr-2004), but became a regular fixture of the calendar of public holidays in Fiji anyways (03-Jun-2009, 21-May-2008, 29-Mar-2007).
Fiji's Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, pointed out that the activities normally held during the National Youth Day and Ratu Sukuna Day will still be held but they will not be public holidays.
Note that this year's National Youth Day public holiday, originally scheduled for tomorrow, was indefinitely postponed, earlier this week (16-Mar-2010), and had come under fire last year (21-Sep-2009), by Fiji Employers Federation President, Digby Bosley, who had said he believed the National Youth Day public holiday is something that can be removed.
The National Youth Day public holiday was supposed to have been canceled 2002 (06-Jan-2002), but that it has nonetheless been included in all official public holidays announcements since (03-Jun-2009, 21-May-2008, and 29-Mar-2007).
Related links:
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Fiji 2012 bank holidays and public holidays (current year)
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Fiji 2013 bank holidays and public holidays (next year)
• Fiji bank holidays and public holidays (news and updates)
• Worldwide
bank holidays and public holidays news updates (March 2010)
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Fiji Scraps 2 Annual Public Holidays