EVEN though the government has agreed to review the proposed Public Service New Remuneration Scheme (SBPA) for civil servants, the topic is being debated openly and loudly.
If not for the intervention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the great majority of the 1.4 million civil servants would be in an uproar over what they see as a gross injustice to the dignity of their labour.
They claim that a serious discrimination policy is about to be put in place. In fact, the more vocal among them have singled out Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan as being responsible for the misdeed.
Perhaps, they are being too harsh on Sidek, the No. 1 civil servant. They describe the attempt to roll out the SBPA as a "grievous attempt to implement a very lopsided remuneration scheme".
They gave credit to the prime minister, whom they believe has done the right thing by asking for a full review of the SBPA.
Mind you, Najib has made it clear that the SBPA is not about to be delayed or postponed. Rather, the scheme will be reviewed to correct the glaring salary scales, which appear to favour only a handful of civil servants.
Listen to senior clerk Hamdan (who was discussing the SBPA over nasi kandar with his colleagues): "Mana boleh macam ni! Kita orang bawahan pun kerja juga. Tak kan mereka yang duduk kat atas saja yang naik gaji beribu ringgit sedangkan kita dapat berapa sen aja!"
(How can this be! We in the lower grades also work hard. It's not correct that the senior people get thousands of ringgit, while we get only crumbs.)
I thought Hamdan was exaggerating. But when I checked, what he said was indeed correct.
Under the proposed SBPA, certain categories of senior officers would enjoy a salary improvement of at least 50 per cent. This works out to an average of RM5,000 per month.
I also learned that the top government officers in the premier grades would get their salaries adjusted by between RM30,000 and RM60,000 a month. No wonder the rank and file are furious.
I thought they were over-reacting when they singled out Sidek as being responsible for this revision, one that further widens the salary gap between senior officers and the rank and file.
I've been covering industrial disputes and management-union relations since the 1980s, and I've yet to see such an imbalance in civil service salaries as the one proposed under the SBPA.
In the days when trade unions, such as those affiliated under the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs), were more vocal and, at times militant, such discrepancies would have met with open protests and some form of industrial action.
Nor, an elderly lady who was listening to her colleagues ranting about the proposed scheme, chipped in: "Kita tak boleh persalahkan ketua setiausaha negara saja. Kita patut tanya ketua pengarah perkhidmatan awam juga. Dia yang pakar dalam hal gaji dan apa juga faedah yang kita patut dapat." (It's not correct to put all the blame on the chief secretary to the government. What about the director-general of the Public Service Department? He's the expert on wages and schemes of service.)
An email on the matter questioned why only a handful of the 1.4 million government employees were targeted to enjoy such bounties. These people had their allowances lumped into their basic salaries as well.
Thus, when their pensions are calculated based on the last-drawn salary, they stand to enjoy fat monthly payments. And a few may even get lucrative offers as board members of companies.
The same email said: "Fortunately, our PM had acted on this. We are banking on him to help find a solution for us. Thank you also to Cuepacs president Datuk Omar Osman for raising this matter.
"The PM is a fair person. I'm sure he will help us. In fact, by asking for the scheme to be reviewed, the PM has already started the process to correct this injustice."
The truth of the matter is simple. It's important to the prime minister and the ordinary civil servants that the grievances are resolved as soon as possible. This discord can have serious and far-reaching implications in more ways than one.
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