NO TO NEW SHIFT SYSTEM

Borneo Post
Sarawak
by Lee Ya Yun
January 24, 2010, Sunday




KUCHING: The laboratory staff of the Health Department wants the government to stop their new shift duty system which they have been using since April last year.

STOP SHIFT DUTY: (Seated from second right) Pang, Ahmad and Adnan at a press conference.
Sarawak Medical Services Union president Eugene Pang yesterday said the system had caused problems and difficulties to about 210 staff members in the pathology department throughout the state.
He pointed out that those affected comprising about 100 in Kuching, 70 in Sibu and 40 in Miri.
“Six to eight months ago, the pathology departments in Kuching, Sibu and Miri were forced to use the system when we actually didn’t agree to it.
“We are now requesting the government to revert to the previous shift system. We prefer it because it has regular office hours, after office hours (overtime) and night shift,” he told a press conference after a meeting and dialogue with the Congress of Union of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs).
The meeting between the union members and Cuepacs secretary general Ahmad Shah Mohd Zin and deputy secretary general II Adnan Mat was held at the SGH’s Central Laboratory.
Pang pointed out that the old duty system had proved to be efficient in delivering the services as they also provided 24-hour service.
“Because of the new system, a lot of problems have arisen. First is the shortage of staff and secondly a lot of staff members are not used to the different working hours especially when they have family commitments,” he said.
He further explained that the nature of work in the pathology department is different from nursing, for instance. Therefore the 24-hour shift duty is not feasible.
The new shift has not brought any positive improvements. In fact the staff members are feeling de-motivated, said Pang.
Then why was the new shift system implemented?
Pang replied: “There is no clear reason”.
He said if the reasons were related to service improvement or cost saving, then it had proven to be inadequate and irrelevant.
“I learnt from the Sibu group that we are not really saving cost. Instead we are incurring more cost. The new system is not beneficial to the workers, yet it puts pressure on them to work for unnecessarily more hours,” he said.
He pointed out that the union had tried to solve the problem internally through communicating with related parties. Unfortunately, they received only negative response.
“We have followed the procedures at our level; we try to solve problems within the department. The union also had a few meetings with the management but all the responses were negative.
“They said they are implementing the system according to directives from the state health director. So we asked for a special meeting with the director but there has been no response,” he said, adding that this was the main reason why the union is seeking help from Cuepacs.
He explained that he had written a letter to the previous state health director, Dr Mohd Kamil Hassan in October 2009. The current director is Dr Zulkifli Jantan.
Ahmad, meanwhile, said Cuepacs would help to channel the request of the union to the government.
He said Cuepacs would take the initiative to coordinate and standardise the working hours so that the welfare of the affected staff would be taken care of.