Thursday, August 02, 2018

HR Minister - Court Janitors/Cleaners Issue? Make them regular employees of government?


Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Judicial Affairs, Datuk Liew Vui Keong (3rd from left) said stern action should be taken against the contractor if they had breached the contract. Pic by NSTP/LUQMAN HAKIM ZUBIR
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will review its contract with Perfect Solution Sdn Bhd, the company which supplies janitors for Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in Jalan Duta.

Some 20 cleaners have been on strike for the last three month resulting in the staff including judges and magistrates sweeping floors and cleaning toilets,

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Judicial Affairs, Datuk Liew Vui Keong said stern action should be taken against the contractor if they had breached the contract.

“I find the contractor is not performing by not supplying enough janitors to clean the court complex.

“They are supposed to supply 150 janitors but in July, only half of the number was provided and it’s getting worse day by day although payment has been made to the company.

“This is unacceptable and stern action must be taken against the contractor. We will review the contract immediately. We will terminate the contact if necessary,” he said at a press conference after visiting the court complex with Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum.

He said there were several major issues which needed to be tackled immediately at the premises, especially the air conditioning and structure issues.

“Based on my visit today, I found that 84 air conditioning units in the building were malfunctioning and some of the staff had bought their own portable air conditioning units.

“This is very unhealthy and the air conditioning is not sufficient to keep the air circulated. I do not want our judges to deliver justice in a hot atmosphere,” he said.

He said Richard had also shown him some cracks in the building.

“I will ask my staff to come out with a comprehensive report and I will present it in the cabinet meeting.

“We must take immediate action as I do not want any mishaps here,” he said.

It was reported on Friday that members of the courthouse – including judges, magistrates and other staff members– had been carrying out their own cleaning work, such as sweeping floors and cleaning toilets, after some 20 cleaners went on strike following the fasting month.

It is learnt that the strike was due to alleged arrears in salary payment.

In a separate mater, Liew said instructions has been given to police to look deeper into the disappearance of several people in the country, especially the missing Pastor Raymond Koh, social activist Amri Che Mat, Pastor Joshua Hilmi and his wife Ruth Hilmi.

“This is unacceptable that people are missing in our country and I have asked the police to investigate deeper.

“We must know what happened to them and who is responsible for their disappearance,” he said.- New Straits Times, 30/7/2018


Ipoh school cleaners cry foul over 8 months’ unpaid wages

Ho Kit Yen
 | February 23, 2017
They are owed RM139,250 after they were told to continue working by the Kinta Utara District Education Department after their company went broke.
Arutchelvan-1

PUTRAJAYA: Twenty cleaners from seven schools in Ipoh are hoping against hope that they will be paid the RM139,250 owed them in unpaid salaries since 2015.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) central committee member S Arutchelvan told FMT that the government was unable to provide a solution.

“The government has said it could not do anything to help us get the eight months’ salaries owed to each of the cleaners,” he said after meeting an education ministry official here.

Arutchelvan said the official had advised them to write to the Kinta Utara Education Department.
PSM central committee member Rani Rasiah said the cleaners had continued to work at the behest of the Kinta Utara District Education Department after their employer, Time Medi Enterprise, was declared bankrupt in July 2015.

“Time Medi ceased operation in October 2015, but the cleaners continued to work until the end of that year,” the political activist said.

PSM and the workers met and discussed the issue with the education ministry in September last year.

It was reported in March last year that 51 cleaners in schools were each owed nine months’ salary from April to December 2015.

But Rani said more than half of the workers had since opted to drop their case against the government because they had given up hope.

PSM would help the workers to write to the Education Department for redress but he was not optimistic of getting a positive outcome.- FMT, 23/2/2017

No comments: