Education Minister Aseri Radrodro

Despite calls for a 30 percent salary increase by teachers’ unions and associations, Education Minister Aseri Radrodro says he is satisfied that civil servants will see a pay raise, although smaller than requested.

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad announced yesterday that salary-based civil servants will receive an increase ranging from 7% to 10%.

The Fiji Teachers Union has indicated that, based on this new calculation, teachers on Band F will see an average additional income of approximately $70 per fortnight.

Education Minister Aseri Radrodro says although the increment does not meet the unions’ initial request, it marks a positive step towards addressing the financial needs of civil servants.

“Now we have to firm upon the process from the Ministry of Education in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and also the Public Service Commission on those that will be eligible for the increase.”

Radrodro says they are willing to hold further discussions as unions are adamant to go on strike.

“We would like to continue discussions and work in collaborations to ensure that everybody has a fair share of what is expected from the budget allocation.”

Fiji Teachers Union General Secretary, Muniappa Goundar says they will exhaust all their avenues to ensure their demands are met.

“We will continue with the negotiations and we will continue with what we had set our previously in seeing that our demand of our 30 percent is met whereby we would be able to have a decent pay for our members.”

Goundar says he plans to meet with the Public Service Commission next week to discuss the details and future steps.