Employment
Employment and Industrial Relations Code 2015 with seafarer labour
The Employment and Industrial Relations Code 2015 consolidated employment law, setting minimum terms, grievance procedures and union rights. Seafaring on foreign vessels is a major employment channel.
Key rules
- Deadline — Grievances follow the Code's mediation and adjudication timelines
- Deadline — Provident fund contributions are compulsory for employer and employee
Governing law
- Employment and Industrial Relations Code 2015 (s. 45)
- Kiribati Provident Fund Act
- Occupational safety provisions, Code 2015 pt. XI
- Workmen's Compensation OrdinanceCap. 100
In practice
The 2015 Code replaced a scatter of colonial ordinances with a single modern instrument covering contracts, minimum wage machinery, discrimination, grievance resolution and industrial action — a real advance on Kiribati's previous position and on Tonga's continuing gap. Formal domestic employment is small and dominated by the public sector. As in Tuvalu, a substantial share of wage income comes from Kiribati seafarers on foreign-flagged merchant vessels, whose terms are governed by their engagement and international maritime labour standards rather than by the Code, and from labour-mobility schemes in Australia and New Zealand.