Cuepacs: Some 50% of civil servants unable to own homes

MELAKA: About half of the 1.62 million civil servants in the country are still unable to own their own homes due to the sector’s minimum wage being “irrelevant” in current times, says Congress of Unions of Employees in Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) president Datuk Adnan Mat.

He 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 in the 12th Malaysia Plan.

As such, he said the setting of the new minimum wage of RM1,800 was important to ensure that civil servants were able to own their own homes as well as to provide for their family.

“Our salary projections make civil servants ineligible to buy houses especially in big cities and, for those who are eligible, the houses they bought are old and some of them living in big cities can only afford to rent a room.

“Our current minimum salary is mixed with fixed remunerations and Cola allowance (Cost of Living Allowance), which means that it is now close to RM1,900 ... (but still) far below the poverty line income (of RM2,208),” he said after the Melaka 2022-2025 Session of the Cuepacs Triennial Delegates Conference here yesterday.

The conference, officiated by Melaka state secretary Datuk Zaidi Johari, was also attended by Cuepacs Melaka chairman Norman Taib, Bernama reported.

Adnan said that although there was a Malaysian Public Servant Housing Programme, the number of housing units eligible to be purchased by civil servants based on the existing minimum wage was still insufficient because most of the units were beyond their means.

He said in addition, the issue of house projects being “abandoned” for a long period of time, especially in Kelantan and Sarawak, caused civil servants to incur more monthly expenses to finance housing loans and (pay) house rent.