As an introduction, I am one of the medical officers who were relocated to Hospital Sungai Buloh in March for Covid-19.
I think I need to raise this issue somehow as nobody listens to our problem unless it becomes viral (proven case). By “nobody”, I mean all the admin, superiors, Timb. Pengarah (hospital deputy director) and Pengarah (hospital director) herself wouldn’t bother with our problem.
The problem is, we still haven’t received our June on-call allowance or even our June Covid claim. Most important, we have not yet received our March ‘elaun perpindahan’ (relocation allowance).
For your information, all of us now were relocated (again) in August based on our first choice (penempatan semula). Yes, that’s a good thing. Maybe some people will say — “be patient, sooner or later you will get your pay”.
But Sir, we’ve been moving across the country in a very short period of time now. We move here and there. Do the superiors/ admin/ unit kewangan/ gov think all of us are single?
We have kids and spouses for God’s sake. Moving is never easy. We need to rent a lorry from Kelantan to Selangor, then relocate again to Melaka, for example. We have to pay school fees, pengasuh fees, house rent and deposit etc.
What I’m trying to say is, we’ve been pushing Hospital Sungai Buloh’s unit kewangan regarding “elaun pindah” for the past few months, but the answer we got was “belum proses lagi, Dr” or “saya baru dapat form semua orang last week“.
We submitted the form in March or April at the latest! They only got back to us in June.
Not all of us were born with a silver spoon. We work, we earn money. And we do really need money to settle down in a new place.
I believe all of you are aware that MOs (medical officers) have a smaller salary than housemen, especially the contract MOs. We don’t mind the Covid claim being late, but at least give us our on-call allowances and our transfer claim first. That few hundred ringgit is very significant.
Last but not least, for your information, this is only the tip of iceberg of what we, contract MOs, go through. We are discriminated against and treated with double standards. But we don’t mind that; all we want now really is our hard-earned money.
Only the power of viral will make them work faster (like the salary issue last time). Or at least, explain properly to us and give a proper explanation on why we have not yet received our payment.
And of course, our superiors ALWAYS remind us not to make this viral, or else they will do something to our contract. This contract thing will always be the thing they threaten us with.
Note: CodeBlue is publishing this letter anonymously on the writer’s request because civil servants are not allowed to speak to the press without approval from their superiors.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
