In an email to Variety yesterday, Pai, who had just arrived from Hawaii where he attended his father’s funeral, said OPA did not receive any formal communication from the governor or the Department of Finance regarding the further reduction of their work hours.
He also disclosed that prior to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s directive to cut their personnel’s work hours to 64, OPA employees were working 72 hours.
“OPA was previously following a self-imposed austerity plan of 72 hours per pay period which had been in effect since Fall of 2010,” Pai said.
He said it just dawned on them that OPA’s most recent paychecks for the pay period ending on Oct. 22, 2011 reflected 64 hours for the pay period.
Fitial, in an interview on Saturday, said it was not him who reduced OPA’s work hours but the austerity measure being implemented for more than a couple of years now.
“So I don’t cut. It is the austerity. We have austerity that means everybody works 64 [hours],” the governor said.
He said if OPA officials and employees are saying they are autonomous, “let them go out, collect their own resources and administer their own finances.
