Contract staff at govt hospitals urged to join union

MORE than 10,000 contract support staff working in government hospitals across the country have been urged to join the Peninsula Private Hospitals Support Service Union to better voice their plights.

Malaysian Nanban quoted association president K. Senthil Kumar as saying that it was important for the support staff in the 3,844 government health facilities nationwide to become union members as they were now working as contract workers.

These workers were previously employed directly by the hospitals, but their terms and conditions were changed to a contract system, operated by five private companies, which in turn appointed new sub-contractors every two years.

Since then the workers, many of whom are Indians, have faced many issues including lack of training, low and stagnant salaries for two years, and then retrenchments.

The changing of labour sub-contractors by the main companies every two years also made it difficult for the workers to demand for better wages, he said, adding that some workers who had been in the job for over 20 years still earned a mere RM1,000 a month.

The association was formed last year with the intention of providing a unified voice for the contract workers. To date, more than 500 have registered as members.

Senthil said due to the contractual nature of their job and the low salaries, many also found it almost impossible to get housing loans.