Government has lots of money to pay overtime and that is not an issue – Acting PM

Acting Prime Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the government has lots of money to pay overtime and that is not an issue.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the Ministry of Health, for the past couple of years, has been under-spending and in 2015, they returned $14 million.

Sayed-Khaiyum revealed this during a roadshow for nurses when a nurse had pointed out that if they reported in sick, they were not entitled to overtime pay for a month.

She says they were given responsibilities and held accountable if something went wrong in their shift and she requested that the issue of overtime be looked into.

Sayed-Khaiyum says another person had approached him in Lautoka, whose overtime had not been paid and that was the first time he had come across the issue of overtime not paid.

He says everyone should be paid overtime, and they have found the person who had decided not to pay the overtime.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this is the level of responsibility that Permanent Secretaries must have and this is one of the issues that is being highlighted with the Permanent Secretaries.