Fiji public servants lodge pay claim as test of constitution

Transcript

Public service unions in Fiji have made a claim for a similar pay increase to that received by the country's top civil servants.

The Confederation of Public Sector Unions has lodged a claim with the Public Service Commission for a 110% pay rise for its 12,000 members following revelations that permanent secretaries' pay has been increased by up to 192%.

The General Secretary of the Public Service Association, Rajeshwar Singh, told Sally Round the claim will be a test of the right to collective bargaining under the new constitution.

RAJESHWAR SINGH: The pay in the public service should be based on relativity, and the lowest paid public servant receives $10,292. And the permanent secretaries have received a pay rise of $160,000.

SALLY ROUND: How have the salaries been working since 2006? Has relativity been followed in the public service?
 
RS: Every pay rise in the public service going 10 years back or 20 years back to [Indistinct] and other job relations exercises done by consultants from overseas have always had the relativity factor in the job regulation exercises. And this increase to permanent secretaries has emanated from a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

SR: So have you had a chance to look at the PricewaterhouseCoopers report? Is relativity discussed in that report?

RS: Unfortunately not, because we have not been able to obtain a copy of that report, and I think that's a confidential document that is with the Public Service Commission. We have not been able to obtain a copy of that. But the question is that they must have some basis to give that rise. And if they have given that rise to the permanent secretaries then it should also be effective down the line, because without the support staff in the public service, without the deputy permanent secretaries down the line to the directors and even to the last clerical officer, without their contribution, no permanent secretary deserves that raise. Because these are people who are doing the hard yards in the ministries and departments, and how can they be left high and dry while the permanent secretaries have received a massive pay increase?

SR: Do you have a plan if this log of claims is not responded to?

RS: Yes, we have, because now the Fiji constitution has come in force we want to test that, where it says employers and unions have got a right to collective bargaining. So we'd like to see how this constitution works now. If we are not given any response, then we'll definitely try and see whether the courts will be able to rule. What the public service is doing, there has been no collective bargaining. But now the constitution says we have a right to collective bargaining. The issue here is whether they want to bargain with our 110% pay claim.

Rajeshwar Singh says the unions have given the Public Service Commission two weeks to respond to their claim.