KUALA LUMPUR – A portion of Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) staffers will see their salaries adjusted up to 36% as well as a cost of living payment of RM5,200 each.
This comes after a picket by the workers’ union (KKLTAT) between 1pm and 2pm yesterday just outside company headquarters in Jalan Bukit Bintang here, where they claimed that LTAT ignored their welfare.
In a statement yesterday, LTAT said the workers are aware of the plan for salary adjustments and cost of living payments, expressing disappointment when the workers went ahead with the protest.
The company also said it held a few engagement sessions with the union, which demanded a 15% salary adjustment and paid in arrears to 2020.
“This has been in the implementation process and salary adjustments will be based on individual salary mapping, not across the board as previously practised.”
It added that no LTAT workers lost their jobs or saw a decrease in salary and allowance during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“From 2020 to date, LTAT has continued paying annual bonuses up to three months while there is a salary ceiling increase from 5.5% to 7% over the three years.”
The exact increase percentage is based on individual performance.
LTAT said it provided Covid-19 aid from 2020 to 2021 to affected staffers amounting to RM36,590 as well as loan moratoriums of six months.
Yesterday Berita Harian reported that some 100 workers joined the picket, with KKLTAT president Zulharith Shahrizzan Kumar Abdullah saying that more than half the company’s support staff earn an average salary of RM2,000.
He also compared the lowest paid staff to having rice with salt while the upper management can afford to have nasi biryani.
“We are asking for salary adjustments, not hills of gold. We have given them time to implement the adjustments but it shouldn’t take two-and-a-half years.
“We told the management that the 15% adjustment demand is not arbitrary. If that is not doable, the management should negotiate with the union. We can compromise but problems arise when there are no answers,” he was quoted as saying.
Also in attendance were Malaysian Trades Union Congress president Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani and its secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor. – The Vibes, July 26, 2022
