The general secretary of Fiji's Council of Trade Unions, the CTU, is disputing the interim Finance Minister's claims of excessive manpower at the Water and Sewerage Department.
The comments come after the interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, indicated the reduction of workers in the public service is now imminent.
The CTU's general secretary, Attar Singh, says information from the union that represents the Water and Sewerage department shows it's not over-staffed.
He says the department finds itself short and unable to respond to consumer complaints all the time.
"If they were over-staffed we would have a very very efficient service. Now that is not the case, we have people complaining about water supply and people complaining about sewerage on a regular basis and the complaints are not being attended to in time. Now as far as we are concerned that is not happening only because there aren't sufficient number of workers in employment."
Mr Singh says before any action is taken the major difference in views needs to be discussed.
