Kota Kinabalu: Having successfully negotiated the approvals on five of six issues with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recently, Cuepacs will now focus attention on negotiations for government contract workers to be absorbed as permanent staff.Cuepacs (Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services) President Omar Osman said there are some 50,000 government contract workers in the country, some of whom have worked as long as 10 years.
"This situation is not fair to the contract workers. They get no pension scheme, no access to medical benefits and are robbed of car and housing loan benefits," he told Daily Express before attending the Sabah Medical Services Union (Kota Kinabalu Branch) annual dinner at the Sabah Golf and Country Club, here.
Omar said contract workers in other countries normally get absorbed as permanent staff after successfully fulfilling a three-year service agreement.
"But in Malaysia it's different. The Government just renews their contracts. If they are good enough to receive a renewal, why are they not good enough for a permanent position," Omar said.
He said it is critical that the Government look into this matter seriously, as it affects the welfare of a significant number of workers.
"Fifty thousand is a huge number of contract workers for Malaysia to have.
If something is not done to reduce it, it could affect the efficiency of the public service delivery," he said.
A meeting with Abdullah recently gained the approval of pension payment to be based on the actual years of service, extension of retirement age, scrapping of the Efficiency Level Assessment (PTK) tests as well as reinstatement and increment of critical and housing allowances (for affected groups).
Cuepacs had been negotiating the demands as well as an additional honorarium payment for civil servants for years.
Despite not having the honorarium approved, Omar said Cuepacs was happy with the decisions that had been made thus far.
Cuepacs had earlier threatened to boycott the May 1 Labour Day celebrations if the five demands it had asked from the Government were not met.
