Sitoh Yih Pin
SINGAPORE: A dispute has broken out between the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) and the People’s Action Party Member of Parliament Sitoh Yih Pin over what was allegedly promised for the leadership transition at Potong Pasir Town Council.
At the heart of the wrangle are the 16 town council employees, who were last week offered re—employment and deployment to other town councils by EM Services, the managing agent newly contracted by Mr Sitoh to manage the town council.
Out of the 16 employees, three were retained in Potong Pasir Town Council. According to employees whom MediaCorp spoke to, the remaining 13 were issued termination letters.
Mr Sitoh explained that the termination letters were issued " in accordance to" the employees’ contracts and the terminated staff were asked to re—apply with EM Services. So far, only six had submitted their re—application forms, said Mr Sitoh.
One employee in his fifties said he knew of at least three colleagues who have decided not to reapply, as they were " unhappy" with the arrangement.
The arrangement is not what Mr Sitoh had promised Mrs Lina Chiam, his SPP opponent at the recent General Election, claims the Opposition party, whose second assistant secretary—general Benjamin Pwee has drafted a " request letter" to the Potong Pasir MP.
MediaCorp understands that Mr Pwee will deliver the letter to the town council on Thursday.
According to a copy of the letter obtained by MediaCorp, SPP claims that Mr Sitoh had pledged, in front of SPP and PAP counting agents in the early hours after Polling Day, to " keep all the staff at the town council" after Mrs Chiam had expressed concern about their jobs at the town council.
When contacted on Wednesday, Mr Sitoh refuted SPP’s claims.
" At that time, I didn’t know the inside workings of the town council and how many staff there were, so my exact words to her, " Since you asked, I’ll try my best to see what I can do" ," he said.
" And I think I’ve kept to my word: I negotiated with EM Services and I must give credit to EM Services. They said, " Don’t worry, we’ll take the staff" ."
As for his decision not to keep most of the town council employees at Potong Pasir, Mr Sitoh said he could not keep everybody, as he has to abide by EM Services’ regulations.
" It has its own way of doing things that is developed over the years, which is why I adopt this system. My paramount interest is the Potong Pasir residents, so EM Services has to bring in its own people. I can’t compromise on standards of services I deliver to residents."
He added that EM Services will probably have to train some of the Potong Pasir town council employees under its own training programme.
Town council employees whom MediaCorp spoke to expressed concern about the situation, especially after they were told that when re—employed, they would be put on a six—month probation under EM Service’s terms and conditions. When asked about the probation period, Mr Sitoh said this was standard human resource policy for all EM Services staff. He added: " If they’re good performers, what’s the worry?" —
TODAY
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