KUALA LUMPUR: The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) is unhappy that it was not consulted on the new housing policy, which states that civil servants will no longer be allocated affordable housing.
“In the previous administration, Cuepacs had always been invited as a consultant on matters relating to civil servants, especially housing,” its president, Datuk Azih Muda, said.
“However, this time we weren’t even invited to any meeting on such an important matter like housing for civil servants housing.”
He said civil servants needed the allocation for affordable housing because their salaries were not high.
“Civil servants are not rich... they need this allocation for affordable housing.
“To remove it is such a bad move,” he said, adding that Cuepacs would seek a meeting with Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin to discuss the matter.
Zuraida had recently announced that civil servants would no longer have a special allocation for affordable homes built under government initiatives.
She said the new policy took effect immediately.
Azih said, currently, some 70 per cent of civil servants did not own their own homes as the current price of low-cost housing was at RM300,000.
“Housing for civil servants is an important issue.
“They work tirelessly to help the (government) run the nation.
“I don’t want them to retire without owning a house.
“I want to ask the Housing Ministry about lowering the price of low-cost homes to RM100,000 or lower as the current price is still to high,” he said.
Azih said Cuepacs would send a letter to Zuraida soon to seek a meeting to clarify certain issues.
“We want to lay out the problems faced by civil servants on the issue of housing.
“We hope that the government will be able to come up with a win-win situation for everyone,” he said.
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