Pay packets and people - how

PNG has turned full circle

Fitting pay packets to people recruited from all parts of the world is a problem for the PNG public service.

ANGUS SMALES describes how the latest move is not as new as it might appear.

The Papua New Guinea public service is to discard its controv ersial dual salary structure under which imported whites and Asians have been getting higher basic salaries than Papua New Guineans. “Sweeping aside the last traces of colonialism” was how some outside newspapers and commentators saw the move.

But in fact the system which PNG is scrapping was not a legacy from the past. It was introduced by PNG’s own gov ernment about four years ago, and the system to which the country is returning is similar to the one which Australia in troduced before PNG became in dependent. In addition, the at traction loadings which will still be paid mean that the effective salaries of local public servants and imported public servants will still differ widely.

Far more significant than the so-called single line salary struc ture is a simultaneous announce ment by PNG that it is reclassify ing its public service jobs. This means there will be pay increases for highly-skilled and key people among Papua New Guineans, most of whom have been manif estly underpaid in the public ser vice. At the other end of the scale, inflated salaries for base level people are to be cut.

The decision to adopt a single line salary scale and to reclassify jobs was announced late in July by the finance minister, Mr Philip Bouraga, and the public service minister, Mr Tony Siag uru. They also announced that PNG would adopt a three-year wage indexation system, the first of its type in PNG.

The story of public service wage fixing before and after in dependence in PNG is studded with political, industrial and emotional developments. Until the early 1960 s Papua New Gui neans were classified only as “servants of the Australian ad ministration” and their pay rates were very low. They were not in the public service itself.

The theory was that when the Papua New Guineans were suffi ciently developed as a communi ty they would be admitted to the same positions as the Australians in PNG, and would presumably get similar pay rates. Even so, this was a theoretical develop ment in a far-distant future.

The change of pace in the 1960 s made it imperative to train and employ Papua New Gui neans as public servants, but the matter of pay rates became high ly controversial. Eventually a significant arbitration decision ruled that the Papua New Gui neans could not expect the same pay scales as the Australians be cause of the economic back ground of their own country.

This was a severe emotional and political blow to many youn ger Papua New Guineans, and undoubtedly contributed to the pressures which created real moves towards independence. In retrospect the decision was valu able because of the impetus it gave to national politics, but at the time it was seen as the effec tive end of all ambition.

Nearly a decade later, with PNG well on the path to inde pendence, the concept of public service pay scales was changed on anti-discrimination grounds.

Base levels of equal pay were set for all positions, but public ser vants brought in from outside were given allowances to com pensate for wage levels in the countries where they were recruited.

PNG retained this system in the early years of independence.

If there was any controversy it tended to be against the level of pay for the Papua New Guineans rather than against the system itself.

By 1978 PNG was recruiting

public servants from many parts of the world, including Aust ralia, UK, New Zealand and the Philippines. A new controversy arose because of the differing allowances paid to the recruited public servants. Although all were on the same basic salary, there was a world of difference in what they were receiving. PNG eventually scrapped the arrange ment and created two scales of pay one for Papua New Gui neans and the other for people brought in from outside. This is the scheme which is now being scrapped in turn, and which will be replaced by a single line sal ary scale with allowances.

As one government official said “the wheel has turned round full circle.”

For some time the PNG gov ernment has been under intense pressure to increase salaries for its own skilled people in the public service. Government doc tors and lawyers have held brief strikes in support of their claims.

Under the new job classifica tion system, which is generally believed to be a far more impor tant development than the single line salary, the biggest increases will go to doctors. Their increase will exceed 20 percent.

The government hired a team of consultants to examine the public service, and in general is following what the consultants recommend. The reclassification has upgraded 21 percent of the public service, and downgraded about 27 percent.

Okuk accepted

by opposition

Mr lambakey Okuk, the controv ersial Papua New Guinea politi cian who recently returned to parliament from a by-election

(PIM Aug. p 44) has become leader of the opposition again and claims that nothing will hold him back from national leadership.

In a series of surprise moves which followed his re-election he eventually received the full bles sing of the combined opposition parties. MrOkuk, a former depu ty prime minister who makes no secret of his goal to become prime minister, lost his seat in parliament at the last general election. But he stood at a by election and was returned from a different electorate, although legal doubts about his eligibility are still being debated.

Soon after Mr Okuk’s re election the then opposition lead er, Mr Ted Diro, handed over the leadership of the opposition par ties to him. The parties involved are Mr Okuk’s own National Party, the Papua Party led by Mr Galeva Kwarara, the Peoples Progress Party led by former prime minister Sir Julius Chan and the Melanesian Alliance led by Father John Momis. Mr Diro, whose own position in politics appears to be in a state of flux, said he saw Mr Okuk as the “natural leader” following the by-election.

The move angered the com bined opposition parties on the grounds that they had not been consulted. The controversy con tinued for nearly two weeks be fore a conference of the party leaders decided to accept Mr Okuk as leader.

Mr Okuk made a dramatic start to his return to office when he tried to attract the deputy prime minister, Mr Paias Wingti, into the opposition. He promised Mr Wingti the prime minister ship if the opposition was able to form a government. Mr Wingti laughed off the offer, but some sections of the opposition criticised Mr Okuk for making it.

“We should be the kings not the kingmakers” was the com ment of the National Party presi dent, Mr Michael Mel.