KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 6): Retired civil servant Aminah Ahmad, who previously won a court challenge to invalidate the Malaysian government's new pension scheme under the Pension Adjustment (Amendment) Act 2013, is now demanding that Putrajaya comply with the court's order to pay her and 56 other pensioners the backdated pensions owed to them, as well as their adjusted pensions, within 14 days from Dec 1.

Failing to do so would result in legal action, including contempt of court proceedings, she and her group of pensioners warned in an eight-page letter dated Dec 1 from their solicitors Messrs Shukor Baljit and Partners.

The letter was in response to a statement by Pensions division director Datuk Shaiful Ibrahim that the government would revert to the Pension Adjustment Act 1980 (PAA 1980), following the Federal Court's decision in June to uphold the Court of Appeal's January judgement that amendments to the law that introduced the new pension scheme in 2013 were null and void.

This, the pensioners said, meant that the PAA 1980 stands and that they are entitled to their backdated pensions and the adjusted sums. “Automatically, the original adjustment has returned to status quo and the government is required to comply with that provision, including the pension adjustment (to the pre 2013 method),” they said.

The pensioners also refuted the Public Services Department's statement that no salary adjustments had been made between 2013 until the Federal Court's decision on June 27, and pointed to there having been four salary adjustments made between 2012 and 2016, based on circulars issued by the department.

All the circulars were for upward revisions of the salary scale of civil servants, based on their respective grades.

The increments fall within PAA 1980, which was restored by the Federal Court in the middle of this year, they noted. Hence, the pensioners are also entitled to get a raise in their pensions, and whatever arrears.

“The PAA 1980 stipulates that pensioners have a right to receive such benefits of increment, which are equivalent to those who are still serving. The purpose is to ensure that those who receive pensions remain in the appropriate status of the present equivalent lifestyle of the officer in their grade,” the letter read.

As such, the pensioners have instructed the solicitors to give notice to the government's Pensions division to abide by the provision of the PAA 1980 within 14 days of their letter, or they would consider initiating contempt proceedings.

Last October, the pensioners sought for their pension adjustments from the government, saying it should abide by the Federal Court's decision.

But Shaiful, in response, said the Federal Court's decision did not stipulate that the government had to pay the pensioners any arrears, and dismissed their request. At the time, the pensioners had indicated that they might resort to further legal action.

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