PUTRAJAYA, May 24 — The Road Transport Department (RTD) alone has over 1,000 vacancies that can be used to employ workers from the discontinued Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), said Anthony Loke.
Speaking to reporters after a familiarisation visit to the department today, the transport minister said there was no hiring freeze at the RTD and it could easily accommodate the approximately 800 workers currently with SPAD.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the abolition of SPAD along with four other agencies yesterday as part of his administration’s austerity drive to tackle the country’s over RM1 trillion of debt.
“We have frozen the 1,000 vacancies to accommodate the transfer of over 800 staff from SPAD. We give the assurance to all permanent staff in SPAD that they will all be absorbed into JPJ,” said Loke, referring to the Bahasa Malaysia acronym for the department.
“There is no need to worry that they might be terminated. If there are any overlapping roles, we will review it.
“We are a considerate government and we want to ensure their welfare is taken care of. We cannot just terminate any employee as we please.”
While the streamlining process will take some time, Loke said SPAD will operate as normal until the transfer of the department has taken place.
