Civil servants 55 and over retire today

Notwithstanding anything contained in written law, the retirement age in the public service shall be 55 years and any person employed in the civil service, Fiji Police Force and Fiji Prisons, who is already over the age of 55 years, shall retire on 30th April, 2009.

This is Section 15 (1) and (3) of the State Services Decree 2009 which will see more than a thousand civil servants go home today, from teachers and nurses to police and prisons officers ending years of service and experience.

There will be 776 teachers from 441 schools, 331 from the Health Ministry and 300 civil servants from the Works, Public Utilities and Energy Ministry who will be going home today.

Meanwhile, in not wanting to disrupt classes the Education Minister Filipe Bole said that staffing of secondary schools has been completed as retiring school principals will be immediately replaced by those teachers who have acted on the positions.

He said the retiring subject teachers will also be replaced from a pool of secondary school teachers who will take up their new appointments in the second term.

For Primary schools, Bole said the Ministry will rationalize the staffing of teachers meaning it will relook into the school roll and work out how many teachers a school should have.

Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dr Salanieta Saketa had confirmed they are now liaising with the PSC to employ some new graduate nurses soon to replace those retiring.