BY NORM DIXON
Workers in Papua New Guinea have threatened to take action to have an increase in the minimum wage restored after it was revealed that members of parliament, ministers, judges and top public servants were secretly awarded massive pay rises of more than 100%.
The government in late January rescinded the ruling by the Minimum Wages Board that awarded PNG's poorest workers rises of 160%, to the princely sum of A$34 a week. Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta's cabinet only approved a rise of 33% after private industry complained. The country could not afford the full increase, Morauta and the government announced.
However, it was revealed on February 9 that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission — a body headed by the speaker of the parliament and containing the chief justice, a representative of the prime minister and two department heads — had secretly awarded and begun paying PNG's MPs and constitutional officeholders rises of up to 100%. Morauta's annual pay jumped from $47,000 a year to $94,000.
PNG's elite rushed to claim they were unaware of the increases. As the controversy over the government's hypocrisy mounted, Morauta said he would attempt to delay the MPs' increases.
The Papua New Guinea Trade Union Congress general secretary John Paska condemned the government's double standards. "The PNGTUC does not accept the PM's assertions that he was not aware of the MP's pay rise. A wage bill that deprives the national purse of between 30 million kina and 40 million kina must surely have caught his attention ... The PM should check his pay packet before denying he has received it. It may save him embarrassment", Paska said.
"Where is the justice when workers and minimum wage earners are expected to justify their paltry wage rise, whereas parliamentarians and the elite can get theirs at the stroke of their own pen without justification", Paska asked.
Bob Danaya, president of the Health Workers Federation, warned: "Ordinary workers are trying to survive on meagre wages on a daily basis. The government may have opened the flood gates here for unions to demand pay increases. They can't blame anyone but themselves for this happening."
Paska agreed: "What is okay for the goose is okay for the gander."