Incumbent Cuepacs president Siva Subramaniam retained his post today with a resounding victory over his opponents in a hotly contested three-corner fight.

Siva, who is contesting for his second three-year term in office obtained 497 votes, while his closest contender Md Yusop Harmain Shah garnered 224 votes and Ramli Omar, 214 votes.

A total of 947 delegates voted in the election, of which there were 11 spoilt votes.

In the previous convention in December 1998, Siva who was also challenged by Yusop in a straight fight won with a slim majority of 10 votes.

About 72 unions which are affiliated to the umbrella body of civil servants' unions vied for various posts at the three-day Cuepacs 22nd Triennal Convention in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.

Cuepacs consists of 114 affiliated unions and has a total of 950,000 members, most of whom are Malays.

In his victory speech, Siva attributed his victory to the maturity of the unionists who voted based on 'track record' instead of 'skin colour'.

According to him, Cuepacs has proven otherwise to the notion that there were racial sentiments in the country.

"What was aspired by the government has been achieved," Siva said, adding that there is racial unity in Malaysia.

Rights struggle

At a press conference immediately after his victory speech, Siva said that he would continue to struggle for the rights of civil servants.

He added that the new leadership would pay Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, chief secretary Samsudin Osman and Public Service Department's director-general Jamaluddin Ahmad Damanhuri a courtesy visit and expressed the union's support for the government.

Meanwhile, incumbent secretary-general Abd Raman Manan returned uncontested but two new deputy presidents were elected from a field of 10 candidates.

The two incumbent deputy president Mohd IbrahimWahab and Mohd Arif Abu Bakar were replaced by Nordin Abdul Hamid and Abdul Rahim Mahad.

Meanwhile, all the resolutions submitted at the convention were accepted by the delegates, including a proposal to amend the civil service union's constitution which would allow its deputy president to assume the president's office if the position is vacant in between elections.

Five-day week

Before the amendment, the candidate who secured the next highest vote and has at least one-third of the total votes would fill the vacant post.

The amendment also applied to the posts of secretary-general and financial secretary who would be replaced by their respective senior deputies under similar circumstances.

Among the resolutions passed by the convention are a quicker review of the controversial New Renumeration System and an increase in housing allowance to the minimum RM230 for workers in the support category.

The convention also called for a five-day work week for civil servants.

According to the resolution, which was mooted by National Union of Teaching Professions, the productivity of civil servants would increase with adequate rest besides giving them more time to spend with their families.

Currently, all civil servants are given the day off on the first and third Saturdays of the month.