SBPA - Premier groups 100% increase,while management/support group only 10% hike...

More than 1.4 million civil servants are seeing red over the government’s new remuneration scheme referred to as Saraan Baru Perkhidmatan Awam (SBPA).

Cuepacs president Omar Osman (left) said that the civil servants unanimously objected to the SBPA scheme, citing it as unfair.

The Cuepacs leader, who is expected to meet Prime Minister Najib Razak, hopes to get an explanation about the proposed salary adjustments of between 7 percent and 13 percent as the Public Services Department (PSD) had never consulted Cuepacs on this matter.

Omar said the Dec 30 deadline for the SBPA offer letters was too short and any pressure applied by superiors on civil servants to support the option would be unfair.

He wanted the 1.4 million civil servants to get the best deal from the SBPA and urged them not to sign the option until Cuepacs meets Najib.

The unhappiness among the civil servants is because the Support Group (known as Pelaksana), who are largely Cuepacs members, feels that their interests had not been considered and therefore they are getting a raw deal of only one increment.

Most of the senior civil servants who had served and contributed for a long period have now lost out because there is an anomaly in their salary scale compared to their juniors.

Comments from civil servants in Cuepacs’ blog have been very critical of the PSD proposal to implement the SBPA. If implemented, the scheme would damage the reputation of the ruling government and they may have to face the wrath of the civil servants at the ballot box.

In one of the many comments, a Cuepacs member said a select group of civil servants (minority) in the premier and Jusa group are expected to gain a 100 percent increase in their basic salary, whereas the majority in the professional and management group as well as the support group will only benefit by a meagre 10 percent increase.

The minority group is also given office cars with full maintenance by the government, involving all costs related to petrol, tolls and utilities, whereas the majority will have to foot these expenses from their own salaries.

Another civil servant stated that the minority at the top only directs others to work and that the majority are the actual implementers, but this support group gets the raw end of the deal.

Exit policy comes under fire

On Sunday, Omar said that he was willing to negotiate over its stance to advise civil servants not to sign offer letters for the SBPA if, among others, the exit policy (retirement) is removed.

However, he said for now, he would advise staff not to rush into signing up for the SBPA because it would not benefit them.

“If they are worried that this will affect their pay rise come January, remember that the difference can be addressed through backdated pay,” he said after a briefing to its committee members on the new scheme on Sunday.

Under the new scheme, non-performing staff will be asked to leave under the exit policy if they fail to achieve more than 70 points for three consecutive years in their assessment.

Meanwhile, Public Services Department director-general Abu Bakar Abdullah said that no one would be victimised under the SBPA.

Four days ago, Abu Bakar said that an independent panel would conduct a reassessment of those who fell below the 70 benchmark when they were assessed next year.

He pointed out that only those with a history of poor work conduct and performance faced the “exit risk” and the move would make the service more efficient and productive.

source:malaysiakini

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