Employees of the government of American Samoa will be offered a cash incentive to retire early, if a bill submitted to the Fono recently is passed.
Governor Togiola Tulefono's administration bill proposes to pay workers with 30 years' service 20 thousand dollars to retire early and those with 35 years' service 15 thousand.
Our correspondent in American Samoa says the rationale for the bill is that it will allow new graduates to take up positions in the workforce that are unavailable due to the long tenure of older employees.
Under the proposal most retirees re-engaged by the government will have to repay the money but Monica Miller says there's concern about the exemptions.
"There are directors who have already retired but the governor has re-appointed several of them to director positions so in effect they're getting a retirement cheque and in fact getting a regular paycheck. So people feel it should be stopped, that there're a lot of people not of retirement age who should be given a dip at these cabinet positions"
Monica Miller, our correspondent in American Samoa.
