Postmen -- At Last, The Cheque Is In The Mail

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KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (Bernama) -- Come July 1, thousands of lowly-paid postmen and counter clerks at post offices throughout Malaysia will get their long overdue salary hike.

It comes just three months after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the Malaysian government's investment holding arm, would divest its entire shareholding in Pos Malaysia, the Postal Services Department which was corporatised in 1992.

On March 30, Najib gave a glimpse of what a transformed Malaysia would look like 10 years down the road, when he announced the framework of a New Economic Model (NEM) to turn the country into a first-world economy, with particular emphasis on reskilling and retraining its workforce into high-income wage earners.

The divestment by Khazanah Nasional of its stake in Pos Malaysia is perhaps an instant example of what Najib meant by "economic transformation" for it sets in motion the transformation of the first government-linked company (GLC) into a totally private entity.

With the sound of that starting pistol, Pos Malaysia becomes the flag-bearer in the transformation journey, climbing up the value chain with both systems and its personnel -- by adopting more automation and the upward salary revision.

To fund the exercise, Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim announced on April 4 that the government was going ahead with a parallel hike of postal tariffs, also effective July 1.

It is only the first such tariff hike in 18 years, when everything else has gone up by leaps and bounds due to inflation and when the cost of texting via the short messaging service (sms) is even much higher than sending a domestic mail.

For the record, the starting salary of postmen at RM610 is 19 per cent below that of their government peers and is well below the poverty level. Their new package will give them a pay boost of about 20 per cent.

As one senior Pos Malaysia executive puts it: "Giving the long-suffering postmen a decent salary is no more just a financial issue, but more a moral issue."

Well-entrenched in both the NEM and the 10th Malaysia Plan, which the prime minister just unveiled in Parliament, is the focus to address what has become known as the "bottom 40 per cent" of the workforce, who earn less than RM1,500 a month and on top of that, the other 40 per cent who earn RM3,000 or less -- meaning a full 80 per cent of the workforce will move from low to high income within the next 10 years, if the targets are met.

Earlier this year saw the implementation of a salary increase for policemen and this was followed by the impending similar move for security guards.

The majority of those affected by the salary revisions falls within the 40 per cent low-income household.

And with 80 per cent of the nation's workforce having education only up to Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) level , the task of moving them up the value chain has become one of the biggest efforts underway during the 10th Malaysia Plan period that begins next year.

In the case of Pos Malaysia, it has managed to survive 18 years with no tariff review, unlike its global peers which adjust theirs periodically and plough these funds into technology and people.

Analysts said that with the changing landscape, no regulated business could depend solely on new capital to fuel growth.

With no tariff hike despite the increased cost in running a business, Pos Malaysia has remained operationally profitable, no mean feat, considering that even a behemoth like Sime Darby Berhad had reported huge losses, prompting the removal of its CEO.

Pos Malaysia has said that the tariff increase would be effectively used to enhance productivity via automation, innovation and workforce reskilling.

No one can argue that our postmen more than deserve their new pay. At last for them, the cheque is in the mail.