Finance Ministry staff go on strike

All work has come to a halt at Ministry of Finance after its staff went on strike.

This follows the government’s decision to dissolve several departments in the ministry and dismiss a number of staff.

On Tuesday, 22 December 2015, the reception is unmanned and many departments are empty.

A senior official of the ministry told Sun Media that the strike, joined by nearly all employees, was announced at the start of the working day on Tuesday.

The departments to be dissolved include the Budget Section and the Debt Section. The ministry has also been notified to dismiss unproductive employees from the IT Section and two employees from each department.

The official who spoke to Sun Media said that a committee had been set up to work against the government’s decision, which met with Civil Service Commission officials on Monday.

The committee was told by Civil Service Commission that they were not informed in writing of any decision to axe Finance Ministry staff, and that they had the authority to stop unlawful dismissals.

Finance Ministry staff say they will not return to work until they receive an ‘acceptable’ response from the President’s Office.

Following the government’s decision, Minister of Finance Abdulla Jihad recently met with his staff and asked them to exercise patience and assured ‘nothing bad will happen’ to them.

Speaking at a ceremony to launch the Civil Service Strategic Action Plan 2016-2020 at Hotel Jen on Monday, 21 December 2015, President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom said that he was not at all happy about having to dismiss some of Finance Ministry's civil service staff.

The President said that this was necessary and could not be avoided because the Civil Service Commission had failed in its responsibility to conduct Human Resource Audits of the civil service.