Betterment of civil servants’ welfare remains priority — Cuepacs president
SIBU: The Congress of Union of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) remains committed to changing the lives of those working in the civil service for the better.
Its president Datuk Azih Muda said civil servants should not always be among the groups that are struggling financially.
“There are 1.6 million civil servants in this country. Whatever problems that they face, Cuepacs will feel it too. That is why today, we have changed the scope of our struggle.
“We are no longer in a government that ruled the country for 60 years. That is why we need to get out from that ‘cocoon’ and change our thinking and the way we do our work, and that is not easy.
“Why am I saying this? Since Pakatan Harapan took over the governance of this country, they are working to change the system. So whatever system we had before is no longer relevant,” he said.
He said this at a briefing on issues faced by the civil service organised by Sarawak Police Civilian Staff Union ( SPOCSU) at the police headquarters here yesterday.
Azih said Cuepacs has played a very active role in making sure the welfare of the civil servants are taken care of, especially in the negotiation of salary increment.
He said despite having gone a long way in the fight for civil servants, Cuepacs now has to start from zero with the new government.
“We have to start new, to negotiate with the government. In this new Cabinet, most of the people are new and they are not familiar with the government’s policies,” he said.
However, he reiterated that Cuepacs would always be loyal to the government of the day because Cuepacs serves the government and not the politicians.
He hoped that under the new government, civil servants would be treated justly and fairly.
According to him, the government has thrown a new challenge to those in the civil service on their readiness to serve, professionalism and in making sure that integrity is the top priority.
“The government is not satisfied with the performance of the civil servants as they have yet to achieve what the government expects of them. This could be true due to limited manpower and resources.”
District police chief ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit and SPOCSU president Sapawi Hamdan were among those present at the briefing yesterday.