[UPDATED] Civil servants to be hired on contract starting Feb 1: PSD

KUALA LUMPUR – New hires joining the civil service from February 1 will be taken on contract, according to a circular by the Public Service Department (PSD).

The move is part of measures to deal with Putrajaya’s rising pension bill, director-general Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz said, and was decided by the cabinet on July 12 last year.

Hiring on contract, however, is only an interim move pending the finalisation of a new scheme to determine permanent appointments for the civil service.

The circular, which leaked and was shared on social media earlier today, was confirmed as authentic by the PSD’s corporate communications unit.

In the circular dated January 15, 2024, Wan Ahmad Dahlan said contract-based hiring is for the interim, while the government streamlines a new system of civil service recruitments and appointments to permanent positions.

“The new method is aimed to balance the country’s long-term fiscal responsibility and it is currently being drafted into law while the current system is being improved,” Wan Ahmad said.

Putrajaya is currently conducting a comprehensive review of salary increments and allowances for the public sector, called the Public Service Compensation System (SSPA). 

An interim report on the SSPA by the Public Service Department was submitted to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently. The review is to be completed by the end of this year before the SSPA is implemented in 2025.

The last comprehensive review of public sector salaries and allowances was more than a decade ago, in 2012.

The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public Service (Cuepacs), on January 21, urged the government to increase civil servants’ salaries by RM300 while waiting for the SSPA to be implemented. – January 23, 2024