The comments to the Minister of Justice, Mr Clive Edwards, in the
National TV & Radio news yesterday aimed to mislead the people and to
intimidate and frighten the public servants who intend to participate in the
strike action next Monday 20th October 2014, that the strike is
unlawful. In Tonga, the power to hire and fire the public servants vested
with the Public Service Commission and NOT the Ministers or Cabinet. The
power the Cabinet has in this dispute is approving or NOT the cost of living
allowance (COLA) for the public servants.
The Minister of Justice told the National TV &
Radio news of Tonga that the proposed strike action to start on Monday by
nearly 700 public servants in Tonga is unlawful and he warned the public
servants that to accept any consequences of their actions although Cabinet has
not made any such decision.
The PSA wishes to confirm that the proposed strike
action is LAWFUL. The Section 21 of the Public
Service (Grievances & Dispute Procedures) Regulations stated that “……an
employee who intends to participate in an industrial action shall give written
notice to the Chief Executive Offer of the Ministry, no less than 15 days
before participating in the industrial action ……”. The public
servants who will be going on strike on Monday have fulfilled this part.
The Regulations also stated that a breach by an
employee of any provisions of the Regulations shall constitute a serious breach
of discipline and shall be dealt with under the Public Service
(Disciplinary Procedures) Regulations. Under the Public
Service (Disciplinary Procedures) Regulations, the power to discipline
and/or dismiss any employee is the Commission and NOT Cabinet. Therefore,
the comments made by the Minister only aimed to mislead the people and
intimidate & frighten the public servants to weaken the proposed strike
action next Monday.
The Minister also told the news yesterday that the PSA
is a political organization. Earlier in May/June this year, Government
tried to wind up PSA claiming that PSA does not comply with the Act in which it
is registered under. Through the Public Service Tribunal, Government
claimed that PSA is not an employees’ organization because PSA does not have
any members and not registered according to law despite seeing the certificate
of incorporation. Government will go to any length including lying to the
people to achieve what they wanted. We hope that our new Government in
December will not have leaders with such nature!
For more information, please do not hesitate to
contact the PSA Secretary General
MELE T. 'AMANAKI
Secretary General
Public Service Association (PSA)
Nuku'alofa
TONGA
