Civil servants to soon receive back pay: Official

Civil servants to soon receive back pay: Official

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration announced on Wednesday
that it would soon disburse Rp 300 billion (US$3.3 million)
representing six-months back pay for its 110,000 civil servants
as its revised 2001 city budget was scheduled to be approved on
Saturday.

"The revised budget is scheduled to be approved by the City
Council on Sept. 15. Soon after that, the back pay will be
disbursed," the chief of the city's Finance Office, M. Natsir,
said.

Natsir claimed that so far the back pay could not be disbursed
due to the limited funds in the current budget, which was based
on calculations made in December of last year.

He said that the back pay for the civil servants would be
covered by the revised budget, which targeted an increase in
revenue of more than Rp 600 billion.

If the budget is approved on Saturday, the revenue targeted
would increase from Rp 7.5 trillion to Rp 8.1 trillion this year.

Natsir said that the city budget would also allocate Rp 1.3
trillion for the salaries of the city's 110,000 civil servants
this year. This figure included some 30,000 new employees --
including teachers -- who had been transferred from central
government departments.

"Although the central government is only contributing Rp 700
billion, we are ready to cover the salaries out of our own
budget," he said.

Meanwhile, city administration spokesman Muhayat regretted the
complaints by some junior and senior high school teachers who
said that their salaries had been docked by the city
administration.

Muhayat said that the 30,000 civil servants, including the
teachers, who were formerly paid by the central government, were
now being paid by the administration.

Besides receiving the same salaries, the new civil servants
also received "a monthly welfare allowance" amounting to Rp
350,000 each, he said.

"They should be thankful since as city administration
employees, they receive an allowance they did not get before,"
Muhayat said.

He said that in accordance with the procedures, the allowances
had been cut by about 15 percent for income tax, or by about Rp
50,000, and by Rp 10,000 for life assurance.

He said the life assurance provided by state-owned Jiwa Sraya
insurance, would accrue to the civil servants after they retired.

"The assurance fund will be returned to them. It seems that
they are not familiar with the administration's regulations," he
said.

He claimed that even low-ranking civil servants did not object
to the salary deductions.

Some new city employees, mostly teachers, complained on
Tuesday that their salaries had been cut by the city
administration.

The teachers, who flocked in the city's Personnel Office on
the sixth floor of City Hall, demanded that their salaries no
longer be cut as they had been over the past year.

"Our salaries are small. But they still cut them," one of the
teachers, who asked not to be named, said without mentioning the
amount of her salary.

The head of the city Education Agency, Masrul Nim, admitted on
Tuesday that certain officers in the administration were also
cutting the salaries of low-ranking civil servants.

"It might be happening," Masrul said.

Recently, thousands of teachers across the country staged
rallies and went on strike to demand six months in back pay. Many
provincial administrations admitted that they had difficulties in
paying the back pay due to their limited budgets.(jun)