Service of 45,000 govt contract staff extended

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) yesterday announced that the service of 45,000 civil servants with contract status ending Dec 31 will be extended to another six months.

Cuepacs president Datuk Omar Osman said their new contracts would take effect from Jan 1 to June 30, 2013.

“We would like to thank Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for the approval. All of the contract staff will get their service extension letters soon,” he told reporters after chairing the congress’ meeting here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Omar also called on the government to allow civil servants with good track records to take unrecorded leave for 10 days, especially mothers who had to take care of their sick children.

“They only get 25 days of annual leave. If the children were to be quarantined for 10 days, the mothers will also have to take 10 days leave, leaving them with only 15 days leave. If that is not enough, they have to resort to taking unpaid leave,” he said.

Omar also called on the government to allow civil servants who wanted to perform Umrah to withdraw between RM5,000 and RM10,000 from their gratuity.

“They can replace the money using their pension after they retired from the civil service.

“This method is more suitable as the civil servants do not have any EPF (Employees Provident Fund) savings,” he said.

Meanwhile, Omar said Cuepacs, in a unanimous motion passed during the meeting yesterday, also called in the government to postpone the implementation of the Automated Enforcement System (AES).

“A detailed review should be carried out as some cameras were installed in areas where no accidents were ever recorded, while the accident-prone areas were left without any cameras installed,” he said.

Omar also expressed sympathy to drivers in government departments who had to deal with summonses for committing traffic offences just because they adhered to their superiors onboard the vehicles.

He said the summonses in such cases, including under the AES, should be paid by the departments.

“From now on, let the departments pay the summonses. Drivers with salary between RM800 and RM1,500 cannot afford to pay two or three summonses a month, especially when they were forced to commit traffic offences by orders from their superiors,” he added. – Bernama