Cuepacs Urges PM To Consider Proposals As Labour Day Approaches

ALOR SETAR, April 29 (Bernama) -- The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Civil Service (Cuepacs) is calling on the Prime Minister to consider a number of proposals in conjunction with the Civil Service Labour Day celebrations this Thursday.

Cuepacs President Azih Muda said he had brought up the matters for the benefit of the estimated 1.5 million civil servants in the country during a meeting with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yesterday.

He said among the issues that needed to be addressed were a number of allowances and incentives which have not been reviewed for a long time despite the drastic rise in the cost of living.

"Prices keep going up but never come down. A review of housing and civil service allowances are long overdue.

"The same with mileage claims. There's been no review despite a number of hikes in fuel prices. All these burden civil servants in carrying out their duties. We also urge for the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) to be streamlined," he told reporters here Tuesday.

Najib is expected to attend the Labour Day celebrations to be held at Dewan Wawasan, Jitra this Thursday.

Azih further stressed that the current civil servant probationary period of one to three years was too long.

He said Cuepacs also wanted the status of pre-independent government quarters to be changed to rented quarters with a rent of RM124 as those who occupied them are not eligible for housing allowance and get only half the COLA.

Another proposal, he said, was for all Muslim civil servants to be given between 12 and 15 days leave for their pilgrimage.

He added that Cuepacs was against trimming the civil service as well because it caused a big strain on implementing government agendas and policies.

And finally Azih urged the government to change the calculation of retirement gratuity from 7.5 percent to 10.5 percent and to raise pension from 60 percent to 70 percent of the last drawn salary or maximum payable from 360 months to 372 months.

-Bernama

Cuepacs Suggests RM1,200 Minimum Wage For Civil Servants

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- Cuepacs Thursday suggested that the government raise the minimum wage rate for civil servants to RM1,200 before the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Cuepacs president Azih Muda said the suggestion for the new minimum wage was to help civil servants offset their expenditure due to the rising cost of living.

"Based on the analysis that we conducted, the average wage hike in the public sector was only between two to 2.5 percent whereas cost of living increased from eight to 10 percent.

"So the margin of between six to eight per cent is stressful for us, especially civil servants in Grades 54 and below," he told a media conference after holding a briefing session for Kuala Lumpur City Hall employees here.

He said Cuepacs also wanted the government to standardise the cost of living allowance (Cola) nationwide while the public service fixed allowance be raised to a minimum of RM250.

Azih, who is also Peninsular Malaysia Amalgamated National Union of Local Authority Employees (Anulae) president, said the standardisation needed to be done because they were the backbone of the government administration as well as welfare and the civil servants' living standard needed to be looked into.

In 2011 Cuepacs had suggested to the government that the minimum wage of RM900 per month should be introduced in efforts to assist civil servants in the lower income group as general workers, office assistants and drivers still received the basic pay of RM700 per month and below.
-bernama.

Bonus poser for 1.4 million civil servants

PUTRAJAYA: Civil servants are keeping their fingers crossed for another bonus payout in Budget 2014.

They are hoping that the Govern­ment will at least match last year’s one-and-a-half-month bonus payment, said Cuepacs president Datuk Omar Osman.

He said Cuepacs is looking forward to the Budget 2014 announcement to include “goodies” that would help ease the escalating cost of living.

“We want focus to be given to workers from the middle- and low-income levels because the increase in fuel prices and other essential items has put us in a tight situation,” Omar said when contacted.

Apart from the bonus, Cuepacs has listed several other items for the consideration of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as the Prime Minister prepares to table the Budget on Oct 25.

They include a review of housing and subsistence allowances as well as a standardisation to the cost-of-living adjustments, known as Cola.

Omar said civil sector employees currently receive RM300, RM250 or RM100 respectively under Cola allowances, depending on whether they are in a city, town or rural area.

However, this does not apply in Sabah and Sarawak, where civil servants do not receive Cola but are instead given a special allowance of 5% of their salary.

“We hope the Cola will be standardised to RM300 in the peninsula and raised by between 5% and 10% in Sabah and Sarawak,” Omar said.

The Government gave out RM670mil in a special RM500 bonus for each civil servant from Grades 1 to 54 in July this year, coinciding with Hari Raya.

A total of 660,000 government pensioners also received RM250 bonus each in the same announcement made by Najib, with the federal allocation totalling RM165mil.

Besides bonus, civil servants enjoyed two annual salary increments this year – the usual increment and a second increment.

The latter was an initiative under the Najib administration’s Transfor­mative Remuneration System, which was reported to have cost the Government RM1.5bil as each civil servant would enjoy a salary hike of between RM80 and RM320.

There are an estimated 1.4 million civil servants in the country.

-thestar.