Monday June 23, 2008

Finance Ministry shoots down GLC pay rise plan

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has decided to reject the proposed 100% salary increase for senior officials of government-linked companies (GLCs) including Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).

“The GLCs submitted a proposal for a 100% salary rise but this was not approved by the Finance Ministry,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Finance Minister told reporters after a special briefing on fuel subsidy restructuring for Barisan Nasional MPs and senators.

It was reported that Khazanah Nasional Bhd had agreed to increase the salary of the GLC top management by 100%.

Meanwhile, TNB staff unions are hoping for a better deal than the 3% salary increase.

The three unions – TNB Junior Officers Union (TNBJOU), Amalgamated Workers Union and the Senior Officers Association – with some 25,000 members in total have yet to accept the 3% rise in the Collective Agreement, which expired at the end of last year.

TNBJOU president Zamri Yasin said a fourth meeting on the CA would be held on July 8.

“We hope the management will increase the offer,” he said. “It is not fair to give us 3% while the top officials get a 100% increase,” he added.

“We are confident the management will consider our request in the wake of the oil price increase which has increased the standard of living,” he told The Star.

On June 4, the Government announced that there would be a 20 % increase in electricity tariffs effective July 1.

The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association secretary Muhammad Shaani Abdullah said that the Government should be looking into ways to assist consumers instead of increasing the cost of living.

“Certainly, increasing the salary of TNB’s top management and ignoring the employees is not the right thing to do,” he said.