NIUE GOVT U-TURNS ON CONTROVERSIAL PAY CUT

NIUE GOVT U-TURNS ON CONTROVERSIAL PAY CUT

Date: 23 February 2007

The Niue Government has gone back on its original plan of taking a twenty per cent cut from the salaries of public servants.

The new agreement will now see cuts to the MPs salaries and village councils grants being halved.

The changes come after an outcry over earlier plans to reduce the hours of some public servants by 20 percent.

Finance Minister Fisa Pihigia says civil servants may now only lose a few hours each day and that MPs will also take a cut.

The PSA's given Government a list of options to consider to avoid public servants being penalised for the one million dollar shortfall.

Charlene Tuki uha, from the PSA, says one of the options was for Ministers to take a pay cut and for Government to stop grants to Ekalesia pastors.

Tukiuha says Cabinet came back with a new ten percent cut for all public servants but stopped short of cutting their own pays.

Pacific Radio News reporter, Ken Makaola, has been following the story and details here a summary of how it all began.