About 1,300 university Relasis volunteers will receive an RM8 hourly training allowance for the first time, costing around RM400,000
PUTRAJAYA: About 1,300 university students serving under Rela Siswa-Siswi (Relasis) will receive an allowance for the first time, with the initiative expected to cost about RM400,000.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the volunteers, who have served without allowances since Relasis was established in 2017, would receive RM8 an hour for training.
“There are about 1,300 of them now. At RM8 an hour, I do not think the financial implication will exceed RM500,000. It should be around RM400,000,” he told reporters after the Home Ministry’s monthly assembly today.
Saifuddin said he had instructed the Rela director-general to include the expenditure in the department’s next budget projection, adding that it remained within Rela’s financial capacity.
“We hope this will provide strong encouragement for our students to join Relasis at universities,” he said.
He said Relasis members did not undertake the same field assignments as regular Rela personnel but underwent structured training while pursuing their studies.
The allowance could be implemented more readily as the necessary administrative framework was already available under Rela, unlike arrangements involving other university uniformed bodies that require further legal and financial processes, he added.
No commencement date was announced.
In a related development, Saifuddin said the Finance Ministry had agreed in principle to consider increasing the current RM8 hourly allowance for regular Rela members following a Budget dialogue last week.
He said Rela had between 135,000 and 140,000 members nationwide, of whom about 35,000 to 40,000 could be deployed at any one time to guard restricted areas, assist with traffic control and perform other duties.
“At RM8 an hour, working eight hours a day for 24 days produces only RM1,536. It does not even reach the RM1,700 minimum wage,” he said.
Saifuddin said the ministry’s secretary-general and management team had been instructed to continue negotiations with the Finance Ministry and finalise a reasonable new rate for implementation in the nearest financial year.
He said immediately matching the RM12 to RM13 hourly rate in the private security industry could have substantial financial implications.
“When the Finance Ministry agrees in principle, we regard that as an opening. The eventual increase must be within a reasonable range,” he said.
The assembly also saw the launch of the Rela Anti-Corruption Strategies and the Rela Security Control and Operations Manual.
Saifuddin said the manual would clarify the responsibilities of Rela members when deployed alongside the police, the Border Control and Protection Agency or the Armed Forces, while ensuring they did not exceed their authority.