Upgrading of my post in the Labor Service

I was promoted to Assistant Director in the Labor Department, on a grade then known as A24.

Government schemes had numbers to denote grades. The numbers range from 1-24 the smaller the number the higher the pay. When I was put on A24 I noticed an anomaly. I was currently on A22 but promoted to A24. Those days we had a Public Services Tribunal, where civil servants could seek redress for any grievance.

I filed a claim with the Tribunal to be placed on A19 which was the closest to my grade. A date was fixed and I wished to take 2 witnesses to testify with regard to the onerous duties of Labor Officers. The two I chose were graduates, who refused to come to testify for me.

I applied for warrants to compel the two to come to Court. They complied as they did not wish to breach the warrants as it will in theory entail imprisonment. The Govt was represented by two officers from the AG’s chambers.

The Chairman asked me how much it would cost the Government if my request was acceded to. I gave a figure less than RM1000.00. I knew that was not right as there were hundreds of Officers in the same grade as me. The Chairman asked the Defence Team from the Public Services Dept. They were not prepared and told the Tribunal that my figure was right. I got my upgrading to A19. When the order was made the Public Services Department realised there were hundreds of officers in my category who would also benefit. But the damage had been done as the Public Services Department had taken my claim lightly and entrusted it to 2 junior officers to handle the case. I used to get calls of thank you from Officers who had benefited. Some of them were even from Sabah & Sarawak. I believe the practice of trusting junior employees to handle cases is still prevalent - hence the number of Discharges not amounting to acquittal in our courts (DNAA) till today.

content (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com

image (c) cartoonstock

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