FREE MALAYSIA TODAY. 25TH SEPTEMBER: About half of the 1.62 million public servants in the country are still unable to own their own homes due to the sector’s minimum wage being “irrelevant” in current times, the leader of civil service unions said today.
Adnan Mat, president of Cuepacs, said the existing minimum wage made it difficult for the government to achieve the target of a household income of RM10,000 per month as well as the goal of making Malaysia a high-income country by 2025.
He suggested a new minimum wage of RM1,800 to ensure that civil servants are able to own their own homes as well as provide for their families’ expenses on transport, education, health and food.
“Our salary projections make civil servants ineligible to buy houses, especially in big cities. For those eligible, the houses they bought have been wearing out for decades. Some of them who live in big cities can only afford to rent a room.
“Our current minimum salary for the first job appointment is mixed, with fixed remunerations and cost of living allowance, which means that it is now close to RM1,900.
“But this is still far below the poverty line income (of RM2,208),” he said after attending a Melaka Cuepacs delegates conference here today.
Adnan said most of the houses built under a Malaysian Public Servants Housing Programme were beyond their means. There were insufficient houses for which civil servants qualify, based on the existing minimum wage.
In addition, there were houses being left abandoned for long periods, especially in Kelantan and Sarawak, leading the civil servants to incur more monthly expenses to finance housing loans and pay house rent.
“Worse still, only the house pillars are there but deductions are going on from the salary of the public servants every month.
“Therefore, we request for a moratorium of two years so that civil servants are not burdened by both the (monthly payment) for the housing loan and house rent,” he said.