BY Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Any fears in the public service of workers losing their jobs if they rise in protest against the new Government did not show up at the Saturday special meeting of the Public Service Association.
A turnout of several hundred agitated public servants instructed the PSA executive to set out their grievances and concerns and forward them to the Prime Minister and her Cabinet.
An open letter sent directly to the Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa earlier has already set out areas they are unhappy with.
Members want an answer in one week’s time.
The threatened purge of CEOS and reportedly Assistant CEOs to be replaced by political appointments of new staff who favour the FAST Government has stirred up the service.
How the PM and her Cabinet responds to the issues raised at yesterday’s meeting at the Tu’utu’uileloloto Hall of the Catholic Church at Mulivai will decide the way forward for the PSA.
The options the public servants have offered are straight forward. What they want is to work together with Government on ways to re-instate CEOs wrongfully suspended or terminated.
Industrial strike action is very much alive as a final resort if everything else fails between the parties.
“Today was explosive and I’m lost for words to explain the thrust in which people spoke to voice their dissatisfaction and disbelief in the actions taken by the new Administration,” one prominent public servant felt.
What aggravated most was the unfair dismissals and hiring without due process the new Government has brought into the service.
“If it’s easy to terminate CEO contracts then it’s much easier to let go of all the others for the same reasons,” was the awakening threat that seemed to rile up the large crowd.
Reported plans to pay up to $35,000 for minister’s drivers, which public servants know by heart is at the principal officer’s salary level, is fueling the fire into an angry blaze.
Many in the crowd wondered loudly over why the standard Public Service Commission recruitment and selection process is not being followed by this new administration.
“So many things are now starting to come through the window that we were not aware of until now,” one surprised public servant was overheard complaining.
The open letter sent to the PM listing out the issues the PSA is unhappy with have been forwarded to the Commissioner of the Public Service Commission.
Commissioner Lauano Vaosa Epa has circulated confirmation of having received the Open Letter sent to her for advice by the Prime Minister.
“ Your concerns and apprehensions expressed through the Open Letter will be considered with the utmost care,” Lauano wrote back to the public service leadership in response.
“I will endeavour to provide my considered response to the Prime Minister within the next week, to ensure we address all that is uncertain in a rational and focused approach.”
The PSC chairperson has taken a mediatory role in an attempt to calm the unsettling reactions in the service by appealing to their sense of responsibilities in “serving the people of Samoa.”
She circulated an earlier memo to the service calling on for everyone to live up to the true ‘Spirit of Service’ of putting the needs of the country before theirs.
Lauano also hastened to remind CEOS and other public sector leaders that “there are proper processes and official communication channels to execute and facilitate” any concerns they may have.
PM Fiame’s Government followed up quickly on election promises of ‘cleaning out the swamp’ once they get into power with a run of terminations, resignations and suspensions at the head of ministry level.
So far 5 CEOs are already out of jobs, either by termination of contracts or resignations under threat of terminations.
One remains under suspension with more already named on the new Government’s axed list waiting for the beheading.
The PM Fiame earlier in the week denied, however, any “policy of clearing out all the heads of Ministries and Agencies’ by her administration.
“We have continuously said on other occasions that we as an incoming administration, we hope to work with our public servants, they are the implementers of government policies, and we will continue to do so,” PM Fiame tried to assure.
She defended the suspension of the Attorney General and the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly as an “…untenable situation for the new administration to continue working with these officials when there is essentially a loss of confidence.”
The PM admitted that the positions the CEOs are in are “…not necessarily of their making but of circumstances around the electoral process and the processing of issues through the courts, and their own participation through their respective positions.”
The services of the suspended Attorney General were terminated last Friday. (see other story).
The last time the public service association went on a strike was in 1981 and it eventually brought down the Government of then Prime Minster Tupuola Efi.