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Friday, November 07, 2008

Cuepacs disagree with proposal to reduce EPF contribution

NST

KOTA BARU, KELANTAN: The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) welcomes the RM7 billion stimulus package introduced by the government.

However, its president Omar Osman said Cuepacs disagreed with the government's decision to allow members to reduce contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) by three per cent for two years beginning Jan 1.

He said the contributions were supposed to be savings for the members after their retirement and if workers were given the option to cut their contribution from 11 per cent to eight per cent, then their savings would be reduced.

“There are now 43,000 workers in the civil service who are contributing to the EPF. We have calculated that an employee in the support group who works for 35 years will have at most about RM160,000 when he retires. What can they do with the amount, say in 2020.

“We are worried that workers will get used to the reduced amount and will not increase it later. However, we will agree to the reduction if the employers' contribution is increased to 16 per cent.

“This will show that the government is concerned with the plight of the workers,” he said after taking part in a forum at the National Conference on Medical Laboratory Sciences here.

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