SUNGAI PETANI – Increase civil servants’ salaries by RM300 first while waiting for the Public Service Compensation System (SSPA) to be implemented, the umbrella body of civil service unions said today.
Datuk Dr Adnan Mat, president of the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public Service (Cuepacs) said the matter is urgent as civil servants’ salaries are unable to cover their expenses due to the increase in the cost of living.
“What we are proposing is an increase of RM300 and it will be adjusted again when the SSPA is ready later.
“Improvements can be implemented earlier without having to wait for the SSPA to be fully completed,” Adnan was reported saying by Bernama after attending an event for Kedah civil servants at the Sungai Petani Municipal Council.
The SSPA is a reform initiative announced in Budget 2024 to review salary increases and allowances in the public sector. An interim report on the SSPA by the Public Service Department was submitted to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim two days ago.
The review is to be completed by the end of this year before the SSPA is implemented in 2025.
The last comprehensive review of public sector salaries and allowances was more than a decade ago, in 2012.
Adnan said if Putrajaya was unable to raise salaries by RM300 in the interim, Cuepacs will pursue the matter by asking for a special allowance until the SSPA is ready.
“Perhaps not in the form of salary but in the form of a special allowance of the remuneration system and this allowance will be closed when the system is ready and the salary adjustment is announced by the government.
“For Cuepacs, (the SSPA) is a good thing. But we want the salary increase of civil servants to be (done) earlier,” he said.
Under Budget 2024, civil servants Grade 56 and below, including those appointed under contract, received an interim payment of RM2,000.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the Finance Minister, said this interim payment was pending a review of the SSPA. – January 21, 2024