The continuing financial woes causing the hiccup to Malaita’s provincial government’s direct employees since last week has forced workers to boycott work on Tuesday.
Workers told the Solomon Star that due to the continuous delay and unfulfilled promisesby the province they have to call-off all duties until their salaries are paid.
“We will return to work once our salaries are paid.
“Some workers just call in at their offices and went home while others remain in their offices with doors remain locked without attending to any business calls.
“This issue is not a new thing adding it’s the third time round to have happened and workers are not paid in recent months,” one worker told this paper.
“How can you expect us to work with empty stomach and having no money to support our families at home.
“Hardly would you see somebody work for free or without any pay for another man.
“What are you (province) expecting from us to do when we are down in this critical situation,” one worker who works under the Auki Town Council (ATC) department said.
He said their work is a manual job and they need energy and strength to do the work.
“So for safety reasons we have to go home until the province pays us,” he said.
Another worker said that such situation like this is not acceptable.
“We have family needs and with the delay with our salary we have to borrow some money elsewhere.
“This is the repetition of what we are doing in the recent months when the same problem occurred,” he said.
The employees said with the continue deepening delay it has forced several families who reside in town to send their wives and children home.
“This should not be taken lightly by this provincial government,” they reiterated.
“There are promises made by our bosses but they fail to fulfil it.
“We can’t bear this longer and we are now in disaster,” they said.
The continuous delay had resulted in some of the angry workers allegedly throwing stones over the provincial office yesterday morning.
Meanwhile, the provincial treasurer Francis Iro assured workers that they will get their pay this coming Thursday in a brief meeting yesterday morning, adding that would also cover the other outstanding pay days.
The workers reiterated that they will have no trust on the assurance because the same thing happened during their past meetings.
“We are tired of assurance adding the only thing we want is just tell us the truth and address our salaries.
“We are tired of false promises and enough of fooling us.”
Provincial Secretary (PS) Peter Hauia was unavailable to explain the situation as he is currently in Honiara.
This has been the third time round for the delay to happen from the other two delays in recent months.
Workers who bank with ANZ were not paid for the recent two pay days and this is added to their third time round while BSP it’s their second time.
By STEPHEN DI’ISANGO
In Auki
