By Pesi Fonua

A new salary structure for civil servants that was approved by the Tongan Cabinet on 13 April, to be implemented on 1 July 2016 in the new budget, has been stopped in its tracks, because the Public Service Association (PSA) claims it is unlawful.

The PSA is challenging the introduction of the new structure because they claim it does not recognize concerns and an agreement made after the civil service strikes of 2005.

Now the pressure group may have succeeded in their demand for Cabinet to change a decision, in return for the PSA withholding a threatened injunction against the Cabinet’s approval of the new salary structure.

The new salary structure for Tonga’s 4,872 civil servants is based upon recommendations contained in two reports from the Remuneration Authority, that government said would be backdated to 1 July 2015 when the new national budget is launched on 1 July 2016.

April 13 decision

Two days after Cabinet approved the new structure in April, the PSA responded and gave Cabinet three working days to revoke its decision. The PSA threatened that it would apply for an injunction, seeking a judicial review of the Cabinet’s 13 April decision, if it did not receive a response to its letter

By 21 April, the PSA led by Mele ‘Amanaki, its Secretary General, in a “three days up” letter, had told the Prime Minister that they were going to take action. “Since we have not heard from you…we are now taking legal action against your cabinet for an injunction to stop all the work you have directed to be done on the RA [Remuneration Authority] Report…” she stated.

Then on 25 April, according to Mele, the PSA made a presentation to Cabinet ministers, and this led to an amended Cabinet decision on 27 April.

There has been no public statement from the Prime Minister or the Ministry of Finance regarding an amended Cabinet Decision on the introduction of the salary structure, but obviously the PSA was happy with the outcome of their communications with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

On 2 May, Mele circulated a letter, reaffirming their support for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, and thanking them for resolving the issues “concerning the legally (sic) of some of the decisions in the first approval of the Remuneration Authority 2^nd Report…”

She stated, “We look forward to the PSC [Public Service Commission] and RA undertaking the consultations with all the Ministries, Public Enterprises and Commissions…to clarify the proposed salary structures… We hope that through these consultations there will be no need for any appeal to the Public Service Tribunal.”

Budget drafted

Meanwhile, the implications of the PSA negotiations have left people wondering what is happening to the new salary structure. The Ministry of Finance has already drafted the 2016-17 budget, to be tabled into parliament when it opens its new session on 2 June.

According to a spokesperson from the Remuneration Authority, their responsibility is to make recommendations, and present their report to the Minister of Finance and National Planning. “The setting of remuneration for public servants remains under the Public Service Commission, and ultimately the Cabinet.”

It also appears that the Public Service Commission does not recognize the PSA as a properly incorporated body.

According to a spokesperson from PSC, the PSA was registered as an incorporated organization of civil servants in 2005, “and they have not submitted any annual report to the Registrar since 2005.”

The spokesperson also said that they had requested the PSA to confirm its legal status and a list of its members, which they had refused to give.

“The claim by the PSA that the RA reports were unlawful, is unfounded and we recommended that the Secretary General and the members of PSA read the RA 2^nd report properly,” the PSC spokesperson said.

He added that there is still an opportunity for civil servants to appeal between now and June if there are issues that they want clarified, but there was no need to strand the process.

2005 strikes

However, according to Mele the National Committee of the PSA has 40 members, selected by civil servants. There is also a 12-members Executive Board, who are elected by the National Committee. She said that when the PSA was registered as an Incorporated Society in 2005, it had 3,000 members but following the redundancy programme in 2006, PSA members were reduced by a third. She also said that the organisation does not reveal the names of its members.

The PSA is claiming that Cabinet failed to conduct consultations with the PSA in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by PSA and the Cabinet on 3 September 2005 after the strikes, which lasted over six weeks. The strikes were followed a year later by the Nuku’alofa riots in November 2006.

Mele had expressed her disappointment with the Prime Minister, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva in her “three days up” letter to him before 21 April. “Now, we confirmed that the nature of Government is still the same despite the democratic changes we have worked so hard for the past 10 years,” Mele concluded.

Government salaries

The move to establish a new salary structure for civil servants, according to the Remuneration Authority 2nd Report, goes back to 2012.

When the RA started work on a new salary structure in 2012, there were almost twenty different remuneration evaluation methods used in Tonga. Each Public Enterprise Board had their own, and other methods were used by the Judiciary and the Legislative Assembly, and the Public Service Commission.

On 18 July 2014 Cabinet directed the Remuneration Authority to provide recommendations for the entire Public Service.

The Remuneration Authority issued its first Remuneration Report in June 2014. That report contained remuneration recommendations for positions under the Authority’s responsibility under the Remuneration Authority Act 2010.

It included remuneration recommendations for the Executive, the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, certain Heads of Department, the Judiciary (all judges in the Appeal Court, Supreme Court, Magistrate’s Court), the Legislative Assembly (Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Members of Parliament, Staff of Legislative Assembly), Public Enterprises (CEOs and Directors), Commissions and Tribunals, all staff of His Majesty’s Armed Forces, the Tonga Police, the Prisons and the Fire Department.

Remuneration for positions, which were not provided in the first report included the Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Nobles, Governors, and Remuneration for other positions including the CEO and members of the Tonga Pacific Games Organizing Committee, CEO and members of the National Retirement Fund Board, CEO and members of the Retirement Fund Board, Governor and member of the Board National Reserve Bank of Tonga, and CEO and members of the Electricity Commission, were also to be included in the updates to the first report.

The new structure was based on a recommendation that it is important that all positions paid from public funds, whether directly from taxpayer funds or through government bodies, regardless of their relative importance, use the same job evaluation method. Incremental increases from now on will be awarded based on performance and not automatically every year.

The Tonga Remuneration Authority is currently made up of four members and a secretary. They are Mrs Siosi C. Mafi, chairwoman; Posesi  Bloomfield, deputy chairman; Meleseini Lomu, Dr Taniela Fusimalohi, and Ms ' Ana Pulimatoto, secretary.