Tonga held hostage, says Minister, as PSA seeks régime change [1]
Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 20:00. Updated on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 21:42.
by Pesi Fonua
As the leaders of Tonga's civil service strike are shifting their stance to seek regime change in the kingdom, the Minister of Justice, Hon. Siaosi 'Aho, says they are holding the people of Tonga hostage with unreasonable demands.
Our entry today, into the sixth week of a national strike of civil servants has been marked with a complete failure of all attempts so far to end the strike, and our return to Square One.
Hopes for an arbitration process by an independent judge were dashed yesterday evening when the Public Servants Association leading the strike, rejected a last ditch offer by government and ended its participation in a mediation process that had barely begun.
Prior to this rejection the PSA on Wednesday evening, (August 24) announced that it had ceased to negotiate with government and rejected any form of mediation or arbitration to settle the strike, until their conditions to return to work were met by government.
This stand by the PSA came on the eve of the arrival of a New Zealand former Employee Court Chief Judge Thomas Goddard whose mission was mediate a settlement between the Government of Tonga and the civil service union.
Judge Goddard, who has a vast experience in dealing with industrial disputes, managed to get the two parties to talk formally and informally over three days, and by Friday afternoon produced a proposal for a mediation process, which was accepted by government. But it was rejected by the PSA the same evening.
On Saturday morning Judge Goddard announced that unfortunately the parties were unable to agree on a mediation process and therefore he and his team were returning New Zealand.
"Both parties had discussions but it just didn't happen," he said. "I understand that the parties intend to keep on talking to each other and that's a good sign and that's what they have to keep doing."
Serious difficulty
When he was asked if, perhaps, the Tongan law was not adequate to deal with industrial disputes, Judge Goddard said he did not think it was a problem because, "it is an industrial matter and certainly there has to be agreed parameters in which any mediation or arbitration would work, such as fairness and equity and good conscience, and things like that. But it is an industrial matter, not a legal matter, and I am sure the Tongan state of industrial relations is adequate to cope with even a serious difficulty such as this."
The fact that outside the talks the PSA had changed their stance and was now talking about political reform, Judge Goddard said had not interfered with their talks. "Not at all, it wasn't mentioned to me at all."
Just waiting
Meanwhile, when the PSA chairman, Finau Tutone, was asked what would be the PSA's next move, he said that they would just wait for government to meet their demands before they return to work.
These demands included 12 conditions of August with a 60-70-80% pay increase and a return to the old salary structure.
However, Finau Tutone agreed today that they had decided now they were taking a political stance, because they do not trust government to honour any agreement that may be reached.
"We have to elect Cabinet," he said.
Finau said that that was the case in order to ascertain that any solution to the dispute would not be changed by the government as it is today.
Unreasonable
The announcement by the PSA on August 24 that they would cease to negotiate with government, that they would not be part of an arbitration process, and that they were seeking a political solution to their problem, came as a surprise to the chairman of the government's negotiation team, the Minister of Justice, Hon. Siaosi 'Aho.
"Personally they are unreasonable to cut negotiation simply because of their demand, which has been the same right from the start, they still insist even though someone is here to look into their grievances. To say this in the 11th hour is unreasonable," he said.
Different game
Siaosi said that for the chairman of PSA, Finau Tutone, to say that they were now concentrating on political matters made it even harder to negotiate, because they had changed their stance. "To restructure government is a different game altogether, they no longer represent the civil servants and their interests."
Siaosi said that as far as government was concerned, the new model of salary structure had to stay. "Performance is the measuring stick, it is used throughout the world and we are joining the world. We accept the fact that there were mistakes, too soon, and there was misunderstanding, but we are prepared to improve that.
"We have insisted all along that government just can't afford the 60, 70, 80% that they demand.
"They are holding the people hostage and we are back to square one," he said.