Setback to Tongan strike talks

Strikers and supporters from 'Eua island march through Nuku'alofa praising a Prince-MP who backs their pay claim. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Hopes for a resolution to Tonga's five-week public service strike had a setback late yesterday when talks between New Zealand mediators and the opposing parties failed to achieve a positive outcome.

The parties will meet again today but if those talks are unsuccessful, it will result in an impasse some observers cannot see a way out of.

Both sides were discussing their options late yesterday.

The Weekend Herald understands the New Zealand team had been optimistic an agreement could be reached that would have seen the more than 1000 strikers, mainly teachers, back at work on Monday.

Some strike representatives had not been prepared to enter talks on how to begin formal negotiations over pay until they were allowed back to work on the higher rates they were seeking.

But others went ahead and met a team of New Zealand employment law experts, headed by retired Employment Court judge Tom Goddard, in Nuku'alofa yesterday.

Tongan Government representatives also held talks with Judge Goddard, law specialist Andrew Ladley and the president of the Council of Trade Unions, Ross Wilson.

The strikers had hoped for good news from the King's daughter, Princess Pilolevu, who met the Cabinet yesterday to argue their case.

King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and Crown Prince Tupouto'a are both out of the country. But the Herald has been told the Princess backed down.

Earlier in the day, about 200 strikers and their supporters travelled from the large outlying 'Eua island to join a rally in Nuku'alofa.

The festive group marched from the wharf followed by a truckload of produce they brought with them.

One sign read "Prince Tuipelehake, ur da greatest of em all".

Prince Tuipelehake, an MP and the King's nephew, has supported the strikers' demands for pay rises between 60 to 80 per cent.

He told the Herald that the King was also supportive but wanted the matter resolved through arbitration rather than decree.

Prince Tuipelehake said Prime Minister'Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, who is the King's youngest son, would listen to his ministers but ultimately had to follow the King's wishes.

* A man appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday in connection with a protest outside the King's residence in Auckland. Sione Taufa pleaded not guilty to a charge of disorderly behaviour. He was remanded at large until his next court hearing.