(Seated from second left), Hee and Marcus with some of the affected Rela personnel during the press conference.
MIRI (Aug 22): More than 20 members of the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) here claim they have not received any salary and allowance for their services for the past three months.
They claimed they have not been paid since May for assisting in enforcing Movement Control Order (MCO) when stationed at quarantine centres, Miri Hospital morgue and roadblocks.
Voicing their plight through Democratic Action Party (DAP) Miri during a press conference yesterday, they hoped the authority concern would expedite payment of their salary and allowance as they need to support their families. Some have turned to other jobs to meet financial commitments.
Eleda Wong, 36, said she had been tasked to assist the police in conducting roadblocks since February.
“I’ve not received my salary and allowance for May and June. I’ve voiced this matter to Rela’s higher management but was given the same reply -still being processed,” she said.
She has been working almost daily for eight hours at a rate of RM8 an hour and should have been paid RM1,900 a month depending on number of working days with RM200 frontliner allowance.
Another Rela personnel, Robin Sila, 47, hoped that the state government has sufficient allocation to pay the salary and allowance of Rela officers.
“If they have fixed allocation for this, I’m sure such problem can be avoided,” he said.
At the press conference, Long Lama DAP chairman, Marcus Hugo hoped that Rela personnel could be paid their dues immediately as they too were affected by the current pandemic situation.
DAP socialist youth Miri chief, Peter Hee who also spoke at the press conference said the party is ready to help Rela personnel should they face disciplinary action for voicing out the matter.