The General Secretary of Tonga's Public Service Association says a new salary structure scheduled to go into force this month is unfair and the review which led to it lacked transparency.
A street in downtown Nuku Alofa in Tonga. Photo: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD / AFP
The Remuneration Authority began a review of civil servant salaries in 2014 and just submitted its recommendations to cabinet.
The Authority said public servants were concerned that they were not being paid enough for their work and that their job descriptions were incorrect.
It said any salary change must be linked to performance but Mele 'Amanaki said not enough consultation had been carried out.
She said talk of pay rises was misleading and the recommended salary changes were political.
"A salary review is not a pay rise. It's weighing your job responsibility whether the pay that is being given to you is there or not. I can just tell you that the majority of workers in government do not have a pay rise. I can say about 95 percent."
Mele 'Amanaki said the only people who were to receive salary increases were cabinet ministers and chief executives who didn't take part in the 2005 strike action.
The PSA has presented a petition to delay the new structure implementation until next year.