A PKR lawmaker today chided Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for criticising civil servants umbrella union Cuepacs for asking for bonuses for government employees.

buah pala high chaparral vigil 200609 yusmadi Balik Pulau MP Yusmadi Yusoff said Najib had indeed shirked his moral obligations and social responsibility by accusing Cuepacs of being ‘immoral' in seeking more perks for its members.

Being the biggest employer in the country, he said the federal government was morally obliged to assist its employees financially, especially during the current trying times.

He said it was morally wrong for Najib to criticise Cuepacs president Omar Osman for asking for bonuses when the government should have included financial incentives for civil servants in its economic stimulus package and 2010 budget in the first place.

By excluding bonuses for civil servants from its economic agenda and financial management, he said the Putrajaya administration was evading from its moral obligations.

Civil servants abandoned

"The prime minister has abandoned his government's social responsibility to the civil servants," Yusmadi, the Penang PKR youth chief, told Malaysiakini .

He said civil servants were government-loyal employees, implementing and executing government policies and action plans at the grassroots level.

Being the ‘front desk' of the government machinery, he said civil servants' welfare and needs should be given the utmost priority.

Yusmadi said the government should help the civil servants when they are facing so much financial constraints in the current weak economic climate.

NONE However, he said the federal government economic package was more aligned towards rescuing the business sector and employers.

‘Abandoning its own employees' welfare is not the right way for Najib's 1Malaysia concept," said Yusmadi.

Premier Najib (right) has chided Omar as being ‘morally wrong' for asking bonus when the economy has not recovered.

Najib has said that it was not for civil servants to seek bonuses as the country was struggling to recover from the economic downturn and private sector workers were being retrenched.

The prime minister also told Omar not to shout for bonuses every time there is a budget, just to remain popular amongst union members.

Criticism uncalled for

Cuepacs, or the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services, is the umbrella body for public sector unions.

It has been asking the government for a two-month bonus for the 1.2 million civil servants in the country.

Yusmadi claimed that Najib's criticism was uncalled for and did not go down well with civil servants.

He claimed that he had received many calls from civil servant friends expressing their displeasure at being denied a bonus.

"They alleged that Najib's government had failed to remunerate them appropriately," he said.

Yusmadi said an economic slowdown should not be a reason to deny bonuses for civil servants.

"Instead, the government should hand out bonuses to its employees to stimulate the economy," he said.