Govt has no plans to absorb contract cleaners into civil service

 

Contract cleaners at government hospitals and schools said they were not getting pay hikes and pensions. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The government has no plans to absorb contract cleaners in schools and hospitals into the civil service, says Sabah and Sarawak affairs and special functions minister Armizan Ali.

In a written parliamentary reply to Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru), Armizan said the service provided by cleaners was privatised in 1997 to develop the national economy, reduce the government’s financial burden as well as increase efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.

“Taking this into account, it is much more suitable for the cleaning services to remain privatised.

“The suggestion to absorb school and hospital cleaners as civil servants will also have financial implications, especially in the payment of pensions,” Armizan said.

In February last year, the National Union of Workers in Hospital Support and Allied Services demanded that contract hospital workers and ancillary workers be reinstated into the civil service.

The union’s executive secretary, Sarasvathy Muthu, said the workers were not getting pay hikes and their leave days did not commensurate with their years of service.

He said they also had to work at four different locations in a single day.

Subsequently in June the same year, M Sivaranjani of the Government Contract Workers’ Network (JPKK) said cleaners at government premises should be treated as civil servants since they provided an essential service.

In 2020, former Klang MP Charles Santiago, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, former Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah and Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim urged the then government to absorb contract cleaners into the civil service to ensure their rights were protected. - FMT