By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 5: Social Protection Contributors’ Advisory Association Malaysia (SPCAAM) says that Account 3, if set up by Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) to allow for withdrawals in times of crisis, should be funded through additional contributions from employers.
Predicting that economic and social costs will be greater down the road, its International Labour Advisor Callistus Antony D’Angelus said if Account 3 is not funded by employers, then unilateral withdrawals by contributors should not be allowed as it would only serve to worsen the problem of inadequate retirement savings.
“It is time that the country reverses the trend of favoring businesses, in particular big business, at the expense of the common people.
“This is the role of the government, and the reform-minded government must harden its political will to achieve a better socio-economic balance in the country,” said D’Angelus in a statement.
He asserted EPF has a social responsibility, where its primary consideration has to be the social protection of its contributors.
D’Angelus noted that EPF itself, through its Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn, has expressed its concern about retirement savings for Malaysians where only 33 per cent of its active contributors have recorded basic savings of RM240,000 as of last year.
He asserted that this is not really the issue with EPF alone but has to do with the broader issue of income and wealth distribution in the country and the fact that wage and employment policies are a contributor as well, with the system built in favor of big business.
“Allowing EPF members, hard pressed for cash during the Covid pandemic to withdraw from the EPF savings was a wholly immoral and detestable act of the previous government. The government should have stepped in and provided aid to those from the lower income group,” said D’ Angelus. — DayakDaily
