Tongans agree to end strike

Placard-waving protesters march up Queen St, Auckland, on Saturday to show their support for striking workers in Tonga. Picture / Greg Bowker

Tongan Government workers who have been on strike for more than six weeks will return to work today after agreement was reached on a salary deal and review of the country's political system.

A Government negotiating team and the Public Service Association signed an agreement at the weekend which includes a significant political achievement for pro-democracy factions of Tongan society.

Pesi Fonua, the editor of the online news site Matangi Tonga, told the Herald that the issues over money and democracy had been successfully separated and dealt with in a process helped by an appointed facilitator, Dr Sitiveni Halapua.

During the six weeks the strike grew from an industrial dispute over pay rates into a wider political movement for reform.

Mr Fonua said the strikers would return to work on their sought-after 60 to 80 per cent pay increases for the next two years, but the rates could be reviewed if the cost could not be sustained from Government revenue.

They had also pushed through a condition that the Cabinet look at setting up a royal commission to review the constitution and report back by the end of the year.

At present the King appoints the Prime Minister and 12 members of the Cabinet. This year, for the first time, he allowed two elected people's representatives and two elected nobles into the Cabinet.

Although the move was hailed as significant, the arrangement has achieved little for those wanting a more democratic structure as the elected Cabinet ministers have had to put the wishes of the wider Cabinet first.

It has also been agreed that school principals, teachers and students will not be punished for their behaviour during the strike.

Some Tonga College students trashed the school office after learning their principal, who had spoken out in favour of the strike, was to be transferred to another position in the Ministry of Education.

Mr Fonua said he had heard that a further march was planned in Nuku'alofa tomorrow to call for the sacking of various Government officials.

The New Zealand High Commissioner in Tonga, Michael McBryde, could not be reached by the Herald yesterday but was quoted in the Sunday Star-Times as describing the planned march as the start of a hopefully peaceful revolution.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff was surprised to hear the commissioner describe the march in such terms but said he welcomed the resolution to the strike.

What and when

* On July 22, more than 1000 Tongans walked off the job in protest over new civil service pay scales. They later organised a huge march with their supporters in Nuku'alofa to demand intervention by the King.

* About a month later angry students trashed Tonga College and in a separate incident four Government cars were torched.

* On August 21, Tongans living in New Zealand gathered at the King's residence in Auckland where fights broke out and a window was smashed.

* The following week a beach house in Tonga belonging to the royal family was razed and a school was vandalised.