The SPP protests new MP Sitoh Yih Pin's (left) decision to axe 16 Potong Pasir town council staff. (Yahoo! …
The Singapore People's Party (SPP) has written to the newly-elected MP for Potong Pasir SMC Sitoh Yih Pin to protest the latter's termination of 16 Potong Pasir Town Council staff.
All except three of the staff were served one-month termination notice letters, and asked to re-apply for employment to Sitoh's newly-appointed managing agent, EM Services, which also looks after eight other town councils.
Under this arrangement, they may be deployed to any of the other town councils, and their employment conditions will also be subject to change, under the jurisdiction of their new employer.
In a letter submitted to the Potong Pasir Town Council's new general manager Ms Soh Chor Yin on Thursday morning, SPP second assistant secretary-general Benjamin Pwee said the change in management was not rational ground for termination to their contract of employment.
Pwee's letter also called for either reinstatement of employment of the staff, or an appropriate retrenchment or severance package.
About 30 members of the SPP also signed the letter, claiming that Sitoh had previously promised his Potong Pasir opponent Lina Chiam that he would "keep all the staff at the Town Council", and further, that he would honour his words.
In the recently-concluded General Elections, incumbent SPP candidate Lina Chiam lost the Potong Pasir single-member constituency by a slim 112 votes to the PAP's Sitoh.
On Wednesday, Sitoh Yih Pin said he had not promised to keep the staff and that he had instead told Mrs Chiam, "Since you asked, I will try my best to see what I can do," reported The Straits Times.
He also said offers of severance packages to the 16 retrenched staff were "fair" and that he would "follow all the employment rules."
But he also added that severance packages would have to come out from the town council fund, saying, "The town council funds belong to residents. My priority must be to ensure that the service standards delivered to residents are not compromised."
All 16 Potong Pasir Town Council staff have also been handed job application forms from EM Services.
Nine of which had been filled up and submitted to the company to date. The remaining seven are still deciding whether or not to re-apply, given that new employment conditions include a six-month probation.
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Just for info, the conservancy charge in Potong Pasir under Mr Chiam's care in SPP is cheaper than those in PAP HDB estates, it is below $30.00. This info is from a resident in Potong Pasir.