KUALA TERENGGANU, 5 Jan 2009: One hundred and nineteen support staff in Terengganu can breathe easy now that their service contracts were extended.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the extensions were done to smoothen the daily activities in schools concerned as well as to lighten their load at the start of the year.
“In our consideration in the context of humanitarianism and the current situation, we gave due consideration in line with our desire to lighten the start of year load of parents including those involved in the support services,” he said at a news conference after visiting Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Ibai near here today.
He said the termination of the contracts was a normal procedure for contracted workers whose term had ended as per conditions in their contracts.
Recently, the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Service (Cuepacs)’s Terengganu branch expressed regret when the 119 contract workers in schools under the Ministry of Education had their services terminated effective 1 Jan.
The workers were among those who had served between 13 and 23 years, who earned between RM1,000 and RM1,5000 and who were from Terengganu.
Two terminations of contract letters for general workers in Grade R1 and watchmen Grade R1 respectively were issued on 26 Sept and 30 Nov last year by the ministry and the Terengganu Education Department.
The general workers and the watchmen were terminated with the reason that cleaning and security work had been fully privatised. — Bernama
