16 Jan 2003

PNG unions say strike will be held to protest government policy

6:01 pm on 16 January 2003

Public Sector Unions in Papua New Guinea say their 77-thousand members will stay away from work at the end of the month to protest against government policy.

The president of the Combined Public Sector Unions, Napoleon Liosi, says the government has still not responded to last year's union submission.

He says unions are angered by politicians who give themselves a wage increase while asking PNG to tighten their belts.

Mr Liosi says he is not concerned where the unregistered protest is legal because he says it is not a strike as it is not against employers.

"This dispute arose from a public policy the view of the public sector unions is that no amount of negotiations through industrial machinery that we have will resolve the matter because our issue arose out of a public policy it has its origin within a government"

Napoleon Liosi.