BY ALLAN JAY AND ALVERDTEKOSTER ANYAP
KUCHING: Congress of Unions of Employees in Public and Civil Services Malaysia (Cuepacs) will let the government decide how much bonus will be given to civil servants in the country.
Its president Adnan Mat stated that it was hard to say how much Cuepacs would request as bonus.
He was asked by reporters on what matters would the union bring up in the upcoming 2021 budget.
“Before this, we have suggested for a three-month bonus but we got RM500, so it is hard to tell.
“We told the government that we have done our job and served the country as best we can despite three government changes since May 2018.
“We still carry out our jobs to ensure that all policies in the country are implemented and to avert any riots or major problems,” he said after handing over certificates of appreciation to Covid-19 frontliners in conjunction with World Environmental Health Day at Kuching South City Council auditorium on Friday (Sept 25).
He shared that there were a total of 1.62 million civil servants throughout Malaysia and over 85 per cent of the vacancies and posts had been filled up.
Apart from that, Cuepacs would be bringing up a new matter on how the government would set a new minimum wage to be included in the upcoming budget and to be implemented in the coming years.
According to him, the new minimum wage should be standardised with the results of a study by Bank Negara, which is RM2,700, a study by Employees Provident Fund (EPF) which is RM2,480 and Cuepacs’ own study, which is RM2,620.
“At this point, our minimum wage is RM1,200, it is much lower and far from the poverty salary line declared by the government which is RM2,208.
“This means that the government also needs to take the first step to look at the minimum wage as the country’s poverty income line has been set at RM2,208.”
He further explained that annual salary increase right now, “which we have agreed with the government following the abolition of the New Civil Servants Remuneration Scheme (SBPA) in 2018, is an interim annual salary increase only.”
“This one from RM80 to RM320 is interim, the union will reconsider this matter under the new remuneration system that will be brought to the government.
“It will be a more reasonable increase according to the current cost of living, according to what we plan and according to what the government sees in terms of the poverty income line.
“So this is interim not permanent but, this is our temporary agreement with the government following the abolition of SBPA, then we will reintroduce it under a remuneration system that we will recommend to the government in the near future.”
Adnan pointed out that when there was a new remuneration system, it would be a permanent system and it could be changed once every five or 10 years.
The remuneration system that exists today is the Malaysian remuneration system started in 2002 and is already 18 years.
“The government should make changes within five years so that there is a salary revision and this does not happen. This means that our salary is far behind, let alone a study showing the poverty line of RM2,208 whereas our salary is only RM1,200.
“In December 2019, we asked the government to increase the minimum wage from RM1,200 to RM1,800. At that time, the poverty income line has not been declared, so the projection should refer to as a minimum wage indicator that should be placed by the government.”
