Judge and Tongan minister say they did not meet

Tonga's labour minister denies trying to nobble the head of a New Zealand mediation team before an unsuccessful bid to end his country's marathon civil service strike.

Senior striking Tongan civil servant Sione Fifita said after an emotional church service in Auckland at the weekend that the team led by retired Chief Judge Tom Goddard of the Employment Court failed "because of the possibility of bias in his judgment".

He said leaders of the five-week strike by about 1000 workers were reluctant to accept Judge Goddard as a mediator after hearing that Feleti Sevele, the Tongan Minister of Works, Commerce and Industries, flew to Auckland to meet him before the team left for Tonga.

He claimed high-level sources in the Tongan Government had passed on the information.

But Dr Sevele yesterday firmly denied meeting Judge Goddard, or even attempting to contact him on a two-day stopover in New Zealand en route to Asia the week before last.

The judge himself confirmed to the Herald last night, after arriving back from Tonga, that he had never met the minister "and have never even seen a photograph of him".

Dr Sevele acknowledged meeting Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson to convey the Tongan Government's eagerness to enter mediation and have the dispute resolved, by arbitration if necessary.

"I flew to Wellington to say my Government was keen to get negotiations going so the whole thing can be resolved as soon as possible."

But although he did not see anything inappropriate in meeting a New Zealand union leader, he said he would not have tried to contact Judge Goddard even if asked to do so.

Judge Goddard said the team spent three days trying to negotiate a process for mediation, and the Tongan Government went some distance towards agreeing to the strike committee's terms.