Tuesday March 12, 2013

Civil servants to get early annual increments in July

Sworn to serve: Police and army personnel taking their oaths at the civil service gathering in Putrajaya.

PUTRAJAYA: Civil servants will get their annual increments very early this year. All civil servants will get increments effective July 1 about a month before Hari Raya Aidilfitri which is expected to fall on Aug 8.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said civil servants who had reached the maximum level of their pay scale would also be given three increments to their otherwise static salary between now and Jan 1 next year.

All this is part of a broader swathe of initiatives that the Government is working on under the new Transformative Remuneration System SST.

Under the early increment initiative, each civil servant will enjoy a salary hike of between RM80 and RM320, which Najib said will cost the Government some RM1.5bil.

“This is in line with the philosophy held by the Government to always appreciate the contributions of civil servants,” he said when addressing the annual civil service gathering at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre yesterday.

For civil servants who have reached the maximum of their salary scale, the first of three annual increments takes effect immediately and will be backdated to Jan 1.

The second increment will come in July and the third in January next year.

Najib said the Government was holding discussions with Cuepacs, through the Public Services Depart-ment, to firm up the many initiatives under the SST.

These include restructuring the pay packages for civil servants with static salaries.

He said that everything was expected to be finalised by the end of this year but civil servants on the maximum pay scale need not worry if the deadline is missed as the Government is committed to giving them a 3% annual salary increase for as long as the SST is not implemented.

Najib said the Government would also look into how the 50,000 contract workers could be absorbed as full-time staff under the SST, and it would extend the contracts ending on Dec 31, 2013 by another year.

“To look out for the welfare of civil servants stationed in urban areas, I have ordered PR1MA to set up an affordable housing scheme on Government land.

“They (the houses) will be offered at 20% lower than market price,” he added.

At least 8,000 civil servants were at the gathering, which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Ali Hamsa.

News

Tuesday March 12, 2013

Civil servants to get early annual increments in July