THE Transport Ministry will resolve all remaining placements for former Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) staff by next week, Minister Anthony Loke said.

“We have already made offers to 300-plus… JPJ (Road Transport Department) will be issuing another 300 – that will come to about 700, leaving some 200 more (which) by next week will be sorted out,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The more than 900 former SPAD employees affected by the dissolution of the commission after the 14th general election will get jobs, Loke said, adding that the ministry is committed to fulfilling this promise.

Only 20% of former employees of the now-defunct commission have yet to receive offer letters for their new jobs, he told Malaysiakini today.

Loke was responding to a report that some 260 former employees are seeking the intervention of civil servants’ union Cuepacs today over delays in new appointments.

Some of the ex-staff said they were told in September that they would receive appointment letters to other agencies under the ministry by December 15, but this did not materialise.

Two weeks ago, 132 out of 967 former employees submitted a memorandum seeking Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s intervention.

“Our commitment is that all will be offered jobs, but some positions have not been approved by the JPA (Public Services Department) as of now, but everything will be done within the first two weeks of the month,” Loke said.

He also took issue with their appeal to Cuepacs, saying the ex-staff were not honest airing their complaints as they have already received compensation. 

“We are fulfilling our commitment. If they want to complain (to Cuepacs), that is their right, go ahead.

“But I want to stress that they are not being honest, because they only talk about us not offering them jobs, but they never mentioned that they were also given compensation.

“I had already given an assurance earlier that every single staff of SPAD would be given compensation of a minimum of three months. Some get more based on the length of service.”

He also noted that the ministry held a town-hall meeting with the former employees recently to update the situation.

“We just had a town-hall meeting with all the (ex-)staff (on December 30). 

“Our commitment is that we offer every single one a job with an agency under the Ministry of Transport. That is our commitment and we communicated (this) to all staff through a town-hall meeting as late as last Friday.” – January 4, 2019.