KOTA BARU, Sept 12 — The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) has called for the government to maintain the civil service pension scheme.
Cuepacs deputy president, Zainal Ismail said the current pension scheme was appropriate and should be continued.
“We hope the government will maintain this pension scheme as it is the absolute right of government employees as enshrined in the Federal Constitution; there shouldn’t be any issue to it,” he told reporters today.
Earlier, he officiated the closing of the state-level Occupational Safety and Health Course Series 3 2019 at Kelantan Trade Centre here. Also present was state Cuepacs chairman Aminuddin Awang.
The two-day course involved 72 government employees from 22 agencies across the country, aimed at raising awareness on the importance of occupational safety and health.
Zainal said the pension scheme could be regarded as a form of appreciation from the government for the contribution of its workforce.
“The scheme can help retired civil servants in their medical expenses, pay for school expenses of their children who may still be studying and settle whatever debts they might still have.
“The pension is not for a life of luxury but rather for a comfortable family life after retirement,” he said.
It was earlier reported that the government would look for the best way to ensure that civil servants would not suffer should the pension scheme be stopped.
With the increasing number of civil servants and higher salaries, the government was worried that it would not be able to cope with the burden of paying pensions.
In another development, Zainal proposed that Cuepacs work with the government and the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to find ways for civil servants to be protected by the Socso Scheme.
“This is because in the event of an accident and death, the employees are only compensated under the Ex-Gratia Scheme.
“Ex-Gratia is not a protection scheme, it is a fund created by the Ministry of Finance and sadly in the event of an accident, the compensation under the scheme takes a long time to process while the beneficiaries may be requiring such relief urgently,” he said. — Bernama
