24 May 2007

Tonga public servants give prime minister June deadline

6:29 pm on 24 May 2007

Tonga's Public Service Association or PSA is giving the Prime Minister until the 15th June to respond to a survey of 800 public servants.

In the survey, public servants expressed their wish for a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU, which was signed by the PSA and the government, to be extended before it expires at the end of June.

The MOU was signed at the end of the July 2005 strike in which the government agreed to pay rises of 60, 70 and 80 percent over two years while they carried out a wages review.

The General Secretary for Tonga PSA, Mele 'Amanaki, says they haven't ruled out strike action if their deadline is not met.

"That would be the last resort but we don't want that to happen and that's way we've been asking for the past two months to our Prime Minister to meet with us and our main purpose is to have a healthy dialogue with our employers, with government in order to avoid what had happened in 2005 because that has really affected the whole country."

Mele 'Amanaki of Tonga's PSA