Cuepacs president Adnan Mat said the retirement scheme for civil servants, which is 60 years at the moment, is still seen as reasonable and relevant. — Bernama pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) is of the opinion that there is no need to urge the government to increase the retirement age of civil servants to 65 years.

Cuepacs president Adnan Mat said the retirement scheme for civil servants, which is 60 years at the moment, is still seen as reasonable and relevant.

"The retirement age of civil servants has been amended three times in the last 20 years, namely from 55 to 56 in 2001. This was followed seven years later from 56 to 58 years (2008) and 58 to 60 years in 2011,” he said in a statement today.

He was commenting on the proposal of World Bank Group representative to Malaysia and country manager Firas Raad, that the country needs to relook its retirement age policy, considering it may have an ageing society in the future.

Commenting further, Adnan is of the view that most individuals aged 60 years and above already faced challenges including health issues and the need to adapt to new and increasingly sophisticated technologies.

He said the decision to maintain the existing retirement age also took into account various other considerations including providing employment opportunities to more young people who are skilled and talented.

In the meantime, Adnan hopes the government will consider raising the minimum wage to address the worrying situation of workers who do not have enough income after retirement because they still have to service their housing loans.

"This is due to the high price of houses at present in addition to lower salary schemes, which affects their old age savings whether they have EPF (Employees Provident Fund) savings or the pension money they receive if they are civil servants,” he said. — Bernama