Staff at several government departments, including the fisheries ministry and the attorney general’s office, have gone on strike in protest at the restoration of salaries for only some areas of government.
Staff a some of the other ministries, including the tourism ministry, are rumoured to be deciding whether they should take part.
Yesterday salaries were restored for staff at the independent commissions, courts, parliament and the judicial services. The president announced over the weekend that the remaining civil servant salaries will be restored in April if the country’s economy has stabilised.
A senior staff member from the attorney general’s office told Minivan News that more than 40 people working at the office were participating the strike, and would continue to do so until their received the restored salaries.
“We will come to the office every day, but we won’t be doing any work,” he said, claiming that the strikers were just trying to get their legal rights.
A senior staff member from the fisheries ministry confirmed that most of the civil servants at the ministry were on strike, including the management.
Some of the ministry’s senior staff had threatened legal action against the strikers, he said.
”We are working legally to get our rights,” he claimed, explaining that civil servants were present at the office but were refusing to work.
A civil servant working in the tourism ministry said staff were planning to sent a letter to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) about the issue.
”We will decide to strike or not depending on the answer we get,” she said.
The economic ministry said that all of its staffs were present and all of them were working “as normal.” A staff member said that they were not planning to strike.
Spokesman for the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Ibrahim Shareef said that no legal action could be taken against the civil servants protesting.
”It is a right for the civl servants according to the law,” Shareef said, but added that the DRP had not yet decided whether to support the strike.
CSC spokesman Mohamed Fahmy Hassan said the CSC had yet to discuss the issue in detail but was currently “definitely not calling for strikes”, and was instead trying to solve the dispute through administrative and legal means.
“We have stated very openly that if we cannot solve it administratively, we will take the issue to court until we get a verdict,” he said.
Strikes would disrupt the services provided by the ministries and inconvenience the public, he added.
“I think the fact that some salaries have been restored has made it harder to persuade civil servants that the country has a financial problem. It’s very unfair what’s happened.”
State Minister for Finance Ahmed Assad said that civil servants were entitled to strike for their rights.
”We have not decided to change any of our decisions yet,” Assad said, refusing to answer more questions “as it is too early to say anything.”
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