Gov’t recruitment plans hinder NGOs activities

The recent announcement by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture’s plans to recruit 529 medical professionals in 2015 has caused a stir amongst social organizations in Macau. Some are worried that this will lead to a wave of resignations.
Paul Pun, the secretary general of Caritas Macau, said that the news is “a huge explosion” for similar organizations.
“In terms of human resources issues, [2015] will be a period of explosion. There was already a minor explosion last time when the government recruited around 200 people. This time, it is a huge explosion,” he said.
The secretary general said that based on past experiences he predicted that 30 percent of medical professionals working in Caritas would definitely be leaving due to government recruitment. The number could even increase to 60 percent.
While Pun said that he did not want to describe the government’s recruitment measures as “stealing people” from them, he hopes that the government can roll out measures to ensure that non-government organizations (NGOs) can have sufficient manpower to deliver their services.
“NGOs lack the support necessary to offer a salary akin to that of the government. People are going to leave us eventually,” he said. “The authorities should consider this situation [when deciding the funding].” He added that the government should implement different measures such as a relaxation of restrictions on the importation of non-resident labor to help NGOs cope with the shock created by the recruitment.
Despite the rather gloomy prediction, Pun said that some of their staff will not be tempted by the government’s offer because they enjoy working in Caritas. “I know there are some nurses who refused to change jobs to work for the government. They would not be in those 529 people even though they might rank among the top candidates. This is good that they have chosen [to stay with us] because they love our work,” he said. JPL