The Finance Ministry has postponed new rules involving the hiring of off-budget staff in the wake of an outcry of public health personnel across the country.
Permanent secretary for finance Prasong Poontaneat said on Thursday that the ministry had agreed to delay the enforcement of the new rules following a meeting with representatives of the Public Health Ministry.
The meeting, chaired by the finance minister, was held following a protest by public health personnel, led by the Rural Doctors Society, against the new regulations. The demonstrators said their operations would be hamstrung by the new rules.
Mr Prasong insisted the new regulations were aimed at setting guidelines for government hiring of temporary employees by state agencies. He shrugged off speculation that the new rules would give the power to the Finance Ministry to control the hiring of temporary staff.
The framework of temporary staff employment can still be set by state agencies, said the permanent secretary for finance. He added the ministry only set the rules so it could keep track of such hiring in terms of numbers and budgets spent annually and enhance fiscal discipline, he said.
Public health personnel are protesting against the new rules involving the hiring of temporary staff outside the annual budget planning process and have demanded the finance minister and others involved resign.
At the centre of the controversy are four Finance Ministry directives, which recommend that state agencies avoid hiring workers off-budget and prohibit pay hikes for temporary employees.
Temporary positions and hiring schemes which were in effect before the regulations took effect on May 18 and were not earlier approved should not be renewed, the directives say.
Temporary workers must be hired at minimum legal pay rates and on a fiscal yearly basis, or within a permitted period, and the Finance Ministry must be consulted first.
Mr Prasong allayed worries by the Rural Doctors Society that the new regulations requiring state agencies to seek approval from the ministry would create a lengthy process and affect public service at hospitals.
He said any agency could seek approval for the renewal of employment contracts of staff beforehand, such as six months in advance so it would not affect their hiring schemes.
Rural Doctors Society president Kriangsak Watcharanukulkiat said on Thursday that community hospitals were facing staff shortages due to the Office of the Civil Service Commission’s rules on the control of manpower. Many hospitals have therefore hired temporary staff, including doctors and public health officials, to work in the public health sector.
Dr Kriangsak said he also disagreed with legal amendments on donations to hospitals to be put under the new regulations such as funds raised from a charity run by rock star Artiwara "Toon" Kongmalai.
He said half of the public health personnel across the country were temporary staff. There were about 400,000 doctors at hospitals nationwide and some 20,000 of them were hired on temporary contracts, said Dr Kriangsak.
In Nakhon Ratchasima, temporary employees at Prathai Hospital on Thursday showed their discontent with the Finance Ministry’s new regulations.
The new rules would affect more than 150 temporary staff working at the public hospital.
Jureerat Thongchan, a health employee at the hospital, said long-serving staff were worried that their wages and employment would be affected after the new rules came into force.
Health officials serve people at Prathai Hospital on Thursday.