Azih Muda, president of the civil service employees union, noted that the budget proposals presented by the Prime Minister yesterday had ignored the union’s request for a review of salary scales to help civil servants meet the high cost of living.
“There is no salary increment and no allowance increment,” he said.
However, he welcomed the introduction of the so-called “second time-based promotion”, a move meant to benefit members of supporting staff who have not been promoted 13 years after their first promotion.
He also lauded the government’s promise of allowing cash awards in lieu of accumulated leave of more than 150 days to be taken during the retirement year.
“The leave days do not expire, and that’s good,” he said.
He acknowledged that the government did appear to address the problem of living costs in raising the minimum pension to RM1,000 per month, saying this would benefit more than 50,000 retirees with at least 25 years of service.
He also welcomed the move to give public servants who retire for medical reasons the same benefits enjoyed by those who retire at the mandatory age of retirement.
Last June, Cuepacs appealed to the government to consider raising the basic salaries of civil servants by 3% in Budget 2018.
Azih said then that such an increase would help relieve the burden of 62,000 civil servants in the B40 category.
“The cost of living has gone up by 8% and this situation is among the factors that contribute to low-income civil servants being burdened by debts,” he said.