KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 30): Former Wisma Putra staff and pensioner Aminah Ahmad and 56 other pensioners will go to court again, following the Public Services Department’s (PSD) decision not to pay the arrears of backdated pensions after the Federal Court ruled that the Pension Amendment Adjustment in 2013 is null and void.

This follows the apex court finding the 2% increment as being less favourable than before the amendment.

In a letter dated Oct 17 to Aminah’s lawyers, PSD pensions division director Datuk Mohd Shaiful Ibrahim indicated it would not be paying the arrears, citing the Federal Court as having made no mention of the PSD needing to do this.

The pensions division stated the apex court's judgment read “We (the bench) however decline to make any order of retrospective adjustments to pensions made and for any shortfall to be paid to the appellant on the ground that it has not been proven that any actual loss has been suffered by the appellant”.

Aminah’s counsel Datuk Baljit Singh, when contacted by The Edge, said following the issuance of the PSD letter, he has received instructions from all the pensioners he is representing to take PSD to court again over the matter.

“However, we will decide how we are to pursue this matter in court,” he added.

Prior to this, Baljit’s firm Messrs Shukor Baljit & Partners had sent a letter of demand (LOD) dated Oct 6 to the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali, PSD director general Datuk Dr Zulkapli Mohamad, and director of pensions Datuk Mohd Saiful Ibrahim, requesting that they enforce the apex court's decision within 21 days of the letter.

This follows after the pensioners noticed that no payment on the arrears had been made, and the PSD had not implemented the pension adjustment since July this year, following the apex court's decision.

The letter from the law firm states that these pensioners are in the latter years of their lives and should not be deprived of their constitutional right, which is accorded to them by the government and further ordered by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

“The government should not hesitate to appreciate the contributions made by public service pensioners in serving the nation, and their welfare should be a matter of priority in achieving social justice,” the statement from the firm said.

The letter of demand sighted by The Edge stipulates that it wants the arrears entitled to the pensioners from the Court of Appeal’s decision made on Jan 13, 2022, to be paid to them.

Mohd Shaiful in the Oct 17 letter said that following the apex court's decision to utilise the salary scale pension before the 2013 amendment, no adjustment and recalculation of pensions for pensioners starting January 2013 was necessary, as there had been no change in the salary structure since 2013.

The pensions division director added that the PSD has complied with the Federal Court's decision in June, reiterating that there was no salary adjustment and recalculation of the pensions of retirees since the government had not implemented any changes to the salary scale of civil servants since 2013.

On June 27, the Federal Court upheld the Court of Appeal's decision to declare the amendment to Sections 3 and 7 of the Pension Adjustment Act to be unconstitutional, ordering this to be reverted to pre-2013 times.

Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, in the unanimous decision at the apex court, said the appellate court was right in restoring the status quo of preserving the original Sections 3 and 6 prior to the 2013 amendment.

Aminah initially lost the case at the High Court, but the Court of Appeal on Jan 22, 2022, allowed the appeal when then-COA judge Datuk Darryl Goon in a landmark decision allowed the appeal.

Following the decision, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said pensions for July to December 2023 would be reverted to the pre-2013 mechanism.

Read also:
Former Wisma Putra staff demands govt to act within 21 days on apex court’s pension decision
Apex court quashes amendments to Pensions Act that provide flat 2% annual increment, says it's less favourable to pensioners