We’ll keep our word, Sabah Water Department says on axed workers

Sabah Water Department director Amarjit Singh.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Water Department has denied going back on its word to take care of the 1,335 water concessionaire workers whose contracts were terminated by the state government last year.

Director Amarjit Singh said the department would keep its word, but that it would take time.

“All of them have to be processed, which takes time. We have to check our internal finances and then proceed to the treasury,” he told FMT, adding that many of the applications submitted by the former workers are incomplete.

The 1,335 had worked at six water concessionaires contracted to operate 58 water treatment plants in the state.

Although the concessionaire firms still had contracts for 13 years and five months, the state government terminated these on Jan 15 in a bid to cut costs, with the department taking over operations at the plants.

A social media post by one of the former workers who claim they have not been paid since January.

Some of the workers recently took to social media, claiming they had not been paid since January.

They also claimed they had not been absorbed into the state civil service despite promises by the Sabah government. They had only been made part-time workers paid on a day-to-day basis, they said.

However, a source from the state treasury told FMT it is not unusual for new civil servants to receive their salaries late.

“They will receive their salaries together with arrears, at most three months after joining,” the source said. - FMT