Fiji's interim prime minister says public servants on strike and absent from work should not live in the false hope of getting paid.
Commodore Bainimarama made the comment after the general secretary of the Fiji Nurses Association, Kuini Lutua, claimed that the deduction of strikers' pay was illegal.
Commodore Bainimarama says Mrs Lutua should not mislead her members because the basic understanding is that people work to get paid.
Otherwise, he says, everybody would stay away on strike at home and expect to get paid.
Mrs Lutua now says it is understandable that those who were on strike will not be paid.
But she says this should be done through deductions over several pay periods and not in a lump sum.
Asked if she expected tax dollars to be paid to nurses who did not work, Mrs Lutua says they should still be paid some money.
