Civil servants will be receiving the much-awaited salary adjustments beginning of July of 2016.The announcement of this salary hike by the prime minister during his 2016 Budget speech in Parliament has brought much cheers and joy to the 1.2 million strong government employees in the country.

In thanking the PM for the announcement of the salary hike for the civil servants I wish to draw the attention of the government to the plight of one unfortunate group of civil servants who have been denied of this salary hike on mere technical grounds.

Several hundreds of civil servants who will be retiring before the month of July 2016 will be left out of this salary hike. This came as a shock and disappointment to this group as they were waiting patiently for many years for this salary adjustment. Many of these civil servants who have served loyally for more than 35 years are from the lower category group. Denying these civil servants the salary hike at this juncture amounts to unfairness of sorts.

The government has technically denied this group of civil servants of their salary hike. Why this cruel discrimination? It is understandable if the salary hike commences from January of 2017 Why July 2016 and not January 2016 for the pay hike? What has been done is a big blow to many hundreds of civil servants retiring before the month of July next year.This group of civil servants will be losing out on their pensions, gratuity and golden handshake payments.

As it is, the gratuity savings of these soon-to-retire civil servants has dwindled in value due to the 20 to 25 percent depreciation of the ringgit. Is it fair to subject this group of loyal civil servants to this raw deal under the present economic circumstances? How can Cuepacs allow this injustice to prevail? Cuepacs should make its stance clear on this matter as it affects the rice bowl of hundreds of retiring civil servants next year?

I appeal to the government and Cuepacs to consider the plight of this group of unfortunate civil servants and look into ways and means to correct the injustice. A one-off goodwill payment or an increase in their gratuity payment will help offset the losses incurred by this unfortunate loyal civil servants. This will go a long way in ensuring the government continues to enjoy the support and trust of these civil servants, their families and friends.