Tonga's government has asked Tonga Power Ltd. staff to call off a strike, planned to start on Monday 24 November.

Around 114 staff of the Tonga Power Ltd yesterday, November 20 informed the Prime Minister Lord Tu'ivakano that they would go on strike from 9:00am 24 November 24.

A spokesperson from Tonga Power said that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet of had ignored their first letter of petition early this month.

The petition objected to a claim that TPL staff had written an anonymous letter that had been forwarded to the Prime Minister claiming irregularities in Tonga Power management decisions.

However, this afternoon in an attempt to prevent the strike, Tonga's Deputy Prime Minister Samiu Vaipulu, and the Minister of Internal Affairs Lord Vaea, with the Minister of Police, Hon. Siosifa Tu'utafaiva visited the TPL staff and asked them not to take action.

A spokesperson said that the request was under consideration.

In their first letter of petition the staff had also asked for the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to revert its decision to set up a committee to investigate Tonga Power Ltd.

The spokesperson said that they had not received any response from the Prime Minister to their first letter, but meanwhile a Cabinet Investigative Committee had visited Tonga Power Office several times.

To push their objection further, 114 staff of Tonga Power Ltd. decided to go on strike. They forwarded another letter of petition, stating that they would not return to work until government:

“- Ceased using an anonymous letter to highlight the selfish and personal conflict that is going on in government.

- To stop the Minister of Justice, Hon. Clive Edwards from using the anonymous letter for his campaign for the coming General Election on 27 November.

- To stop a Cabinet Minister from appointing his son or a relative to be the chairman or a member of a board of any government enterprises.

- To stop the personal infighting within Cabinet.

- For anyone who introduced an anonymous letter into Cabinet to held responsible as one of the writers of such a letter.”

Tonga Power staff also wanted government “to stop a politically motivated witch-hunt, relating to the Minister and the CEO of the Ministry of Public Enterprises, Sitiveni 'Esau and staff of Tonga Power Ltd.”

They also wanted the PM and Cabinet to recognize the audited report of Tonga Power Ltd by KPMG for 2013/14, the most profitable year for the company.

They also stated that they would not accept any lay off of any of the staff who signed this letter of Petition.

Meanwhile, Tonga Power management has confirmed that there is no general power shutdown planned for Monday, and that if the strike goes ahead, the power supply will be run in the same way as a public holiday with standby crews  available for emergencies.

Tonga's General Election is scheduled for Thursday November 27.