Transport Secretary, Roy Mumu said the strike action by employees of the National Weather Service is illegal.
And they are not supposed to issue media statements without the approval from his office because it’s just a division within the Transport Department.
He made this remarks in relation to the industrial strike action last Friday.
This is the first time, employees of the National Weather Service have taken a nation-wide action to stop work, since it came under the Transport Department.
The main door to the Office of the National Weather Service remains closed as of the Close of Business, last Friday.
Employees of the National Weather Service said the Transport Department had failed to address their outstanding salary grievances as it promised to do, in the first pay period of 2018.
Thus they have taken the industrial action to stop work until; they get a positive response from the Transport Department.
However, the Transport Secretary Roy Mumu said the strike is illegal due to the non-compliance to the Public Service Attribution Tribunal Process.
On December 20th last year, employees of the National Weather Service, met with the Transport Secretary and highlighted their reasons to go on strike.
After the discussion, the employees claim they were verbally promised their grievances will be addressed in the first pay period of 2018.
Thus, the employees continued working until last Wednesday, however when they saw that the Transport Department did not address their grievances, they took strike actions.
The strike is for an indefinite period and the Weather Service has apologised for the inconvenience cost.
But the Transport Secretary maintains that the strike is illegal and urged all employees to resume duties.
Since the stop work, no weather reports have been issued to all media outlines for news purposes.
Meanwhile the Civil Aviation Safety Authority is providing information on weather details to assist the Airline Industry continue its service.
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