CUEPACS WANTS ITS MEMBERS TO STICK TO 11%

The Star
7/11/2008

KOTA BARU: Cuepacs will discourage some 43,000 of its members from reducing their Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
President of the public sector um­­brella union Omar Osman said a simple calculation for some EPF contributors under the civil service’s support group showed that after 35 years of service they would only have RM160,000 each upon retirement.
“Civil service staffers contributing to EPF do not have any pension, gratuity or medical benefits. They would struggle in retirement,” he said.
Omar said Cuepacs did not support the Government’s Supplemen­tary Budget proposal that EPF contributors can choose to lower their monthly deduction rate by 3% so that they will have more spending power.
Omar said the union held a meeting with the Public Services Depart­ment during which it stated that civil service employees with EPF should also be entitled to a form of a gratuity scheme or medical benefits and some pension allowances.
In another development, Omar said around 100 contract workers in the public sector in Kelantan had their services terminated although the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdul­lah Ahmad Badawi assured unions recently that the Government would continue hiring contract workers.
He urged ministries, agencies and Government statutory bodies to abide by what Abdullah said.