KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Shafie Apdal says there will be no pay cuts or lay-offs for the thousands of government-linked company (GLC) employees in Sabah.
He said he had advised all GLC chiefs to ensure their employees’ salaries are paid despite the impact on their enterprises by the movement control order (MCO).
“I am aware that our GLCs face numerous problems. But I have advised them to provide input to the finance ministry to reduce their burden.
“We have thousands of workers – Yayasan Sabah, for instance, has staff being assigned here down to the Sabah districts.
“But I have advised the bosses not to terminate them and ensure no pay cuts. They have to pay all the salaries due to them,” he told reporters at the state administrative complex here.
There are around 221 GLCs in Sabah which hire tens of thousands of workers in sectors ranging from property development and plantations to quarries and other sectors.
Shafie also announced one-off cash aid of RM500 for all Sabah civil servants and government daily job workers whose pay grade is Grade 54 and below.
He said payments will be made next month.
He said the funds would be sourced from the approval of the supplementary supply bill for an additional fund of RM533 million allotted for the state’s Covid-19 aid package in the state assembly yesterday.
He also said the state government is mulling the possibility of creating an online platform to allow businesses to sell food during the fasting month.
He said the government is also expecting the delivery of 10,000 Covid-19 reagents to assist health authorities in the state to resolve backlogs.
The number of backlog samples for Covid-19 checks in Sabah hit over 4,000 this month due to a shortage of reagents and rapid test kits.
The health department last updated backlog cases on April 17.
“The state health department right now will only be able to test up to 1,000 patients a day,” Shafie said. “The tests are done via the health ministry lab here and also private labs.”
Collection for the Sabah disaster fund has reached around RM15 million via donations from GLCs and private companies. - FMT
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