As part of the new PRIHATIN Economic Stimulus Package, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the Salary Subsidy Programme as a measure to prevent employees from being let go and lose their income. In addition, he also announced a one-off payment for all public servants.
The Salary Subsidy Programme is designed to assist employers to keep employees employed. “In these difficult times, I do not want to see employees being laid off and lose their income,” the Prime Minister said.
Through this programme, the Government will offer a RM600 salary for three months to all employees who fulfill the following conditions:
- earning less than RM4,000 a month, and
- their employers have suffered a loss in income of more than 50% since 1 January 2020
In exchange, employers must ensure they do the following:
- must not lay off any staff or force them to take unpaid leave
- must not cut the salaries of existing staff
According to the Prime Minister, this programme will benefit 3.3 million employees around the country, and will take up RM5.9 billion of the PRIHATIN Economic Stimulus Programme’s RM250 billion budget.
In addition, Tan Sri Muhyiddin also announced that public servants will receive a one-off payment to assist them during the pandemic. All 1.5 million public servants of Gred 56 and below (including those under contract) will receive a one-off payment of RM500 in April 2020. On top of that, eligible retired government servants will also receive a one-off assistance of RM500, benefiting over 850,000 retirees. This payout will also be done in April 2020.
