My name is Gana

  After my Higher School Certificate examination, I was appointed as a labour officer. This job paid well enough that I could finally afford a car for work. It involved a fair amount of travelling, the allowances for which could well cover my petrol bills. This first car was a second hand Volkswagen 1200, reg. AF 1085 in white. However I had just learnt driving and was not confident in taking out the car for my duties. So for the first few weeks, a friend of mine agreed to be a co-driver while I learnt to drive in my neighbourhood.  Once I gained confidence, I told my friend that I was confident and he need not assist me while I drove around. The first day of independent driving, I reversed into a child’s tricycle. Fortunately the child had abandoned the bike in my driveway and went away to look for other pursuits that drew her attention. There was a dent to the rear of my vehicle    that would require some money to have it fixed back into its original shape.  ...

When I was in school my family circumstances was bad and we had little money for basic necessities. It followed that I was not able to go to the canteen for food during recess time. This was well known to my friends especially Joe. Joe’s mum was self employed and Joe used to have money for recess time. Knowing my situation, he used to compel me to the canteen sometimes, for noodles during the breaks.  On some weekends, he would cycle 3 miles from his home in town, to visit me in the village where my house was located. Every time he came over, he would invite me to a coffee shop near my home to treat me to roti canai and tea. One day he invited me to the shop where we had our usual roti and tea. After we finished our food, Joe dipped his hand into his pocket and discovered that he had not brought any money. His house was three hours away. He looked at me - and I said I shall get the money from my mom. I cycled away leaving him as pawn in the shop.  I approached my mom with my p...

Before the SOCSO Act 1969 was enacted, Malaysian employees were covered by the Workmen’s Compensation Act. This Act was inherited by us from UK legislation that was extended to the colonies and provided some measure of relief to employees injured at work. One day, while at work a young man came to the office complaining that his employer had refused to pay him compensation though he had injured himself at work. I took down his statement and assured him that we would call up the employer to find out why he was not paying him compensation, as assessed by the local office.  When we called the employer up, he said he was insured and the Insurance Company had refused payment when the assessment was sent to them.    I then wrote to the insurance company for an explanation. They replied that according to the medical report from the doctor, the workman was injured at work but he did not suffer injuries that prevented him from doing his normal work. I took a look at the report and...

When my children were born my wife was working too. We found the need to engage baby sitters while we were at work, and had an assortment of house maids over the years, to help out.  These were mostly the children of rubber tappers who did not wish to work as tappers or other field work on the estates. Some of these workers were introduced to our homes by supervisors of small holdings that dotted the town. Many of these girls had three or four years of schooling at vernacular schools after which they dropped out to look after their infant siblings while both parents were at work. These children were from small holdings where there were no crèches or child care facilities as the number of infants was lesser than the statutory number that required the employer to provide child care facilities. The girls who came from homes that required additional income were well mannered girls, caring and looked after their charges with care and devotion. The earnings of these young workers were ha...

Universities in Malaysia had a unique system of grading their graduates.They had a First Class Honours, two second class honours ( First Class, Two Second Class i.e Upper and Lower)and a Pass Degree for graduates who failed to meet the requirements for an Honours Degree. I do not know if the Pass Degree grade was devised by the Universities or by the Public Services Department.  The Schemes of Service for Public Services    included a variety of occupations    known as Division I in the Public Service. These included    professional jobs    that required an Honours Degree. Likewise the schemes also listed down jobs that required only a Pass Degree. There were specific occupations that required a basic degree. Over time as the numbers of graduates multiplied the    Public Services Department    and the Universities did away with the classification of Pass Degrees and converted them to Third Class Honours. However recruitmen...

  At one of the Offices I had worked at, a mischievous officer joined the Department. He was living with a couple of friends    at a housing estate. The house was vacant most days as all the occupants were bachelors and went to work in the mornings. As a Field Officer there were days when he completed his tasks and he returned home early. At these times, he had the use of the entire    house when all his housemates went to work.   As the days went by, he became bolder and started taking girlfriends to his home during days when he had completed his tasks. One day he confided to    the Head of Department that he had been careless and had made a girl pregnant. The girl’s brothers had requested him to marry the girl but he was not in a position to do that. He did not love the girl either. The girl also had other boyfriends and he was sure he was not responsible for the pregnancy.  The Head of Department suggested that he should request for a...

  When I assumed my new appointment as a Labour Officer I had three bosses.   Two of them were kind and compassionate while the third one was arrogant. For some reason he had a hatred for me. I must say the feelings were mutual as I always preferred to avoid him. When I saw him coming to the Club where we were members I would take the back entrance and drive off in my car. One day he confronted    me in the office and asked why I was avoiding him. I told him it was not deliberate but a coincidence. He was not pleased with my reply, gave an uneasy smile and moved away from where I was.  From then on I confined my activities to the skittle table in the club and avoided him at the bar which was meant for beer drinkers. We used to have Bahasa Melayu    classes at 5.00pm on alternate days of the week. Those were the early years after independence and the Government encouraged all Officers to attend these classes.These classes were usually held outside offic...

  We had one greedy employee who joined the service on graduation. After three months of training he was provided his own files to conduct inspections and investigations. His greedy nature surfaced the moment he was set loose on his own.  Complaints of abuse of his position started arriving after each visit he made on the place of work. At a tailor’s business he ordered an expensive business suit after conducting investigations and found some irregularities in record keeping. We became aware of it when the tailor used to come over to the office to meet the delinquent Officer. The tailor was not aware that he had been transferred out and when he discovered the Officer was no more at the local office he agreed to write off the amount due as business loss instead of pursuing his claim.  All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com Images are for illustrative purposes only, and are sourced from the web. Please drop us a note if you are the owner and wish to ...

 The Labour Office was located on the fringes of the rubber estate. It was an isolated building. The main office was located in the middle of the building while the “Labor Court” was abutting the main office.The building was a wooden one constructed after World War 2. An assortment of insects were found to be hiding between the cresses    of the timber structure. Snakes too abounded though none of us ventured to find out if their stings were venomous. The office orderly was a mischievous young lad. He used to bait the scorpions that abounded and put them into a glass bottle as if to warn visitors that the building is infested with scorpions and their entry is at their own risk. He did not have any sample of snakes.There were quite a number of employers who took the warning seriously and often settled the claims of their employees at the front office rather than facing the wrath of the scorpions at the “Labour Court” room. A husband and wife couple - both tappers, filed a ...

While at work I was able to witness human nature in its various forms as I had opportunities to interact with a variety of people who came to the Office to seek guidance on compliance to the labour laws.  One day an employer came over and insisted that he only wished to meet me and not any other officer. When I went out to meet him I could not recognise him. I told him that I couldn’t remember where we had met. He told me that he wouldn’t blame me since it had been three or four years past that I had visited him at his shop. I inquired on the purpose of his visit that morning. He invited me to have a drink at the office canteen downstairs where he could reveal his problems. I agreed and followed him downstairs to the canteen where at his signal the attendant brought two steaming cups of tea.    Over tea he apologised for drawing me into his domestic problems but insisted he had given it much thought and found no other alternative. Every so often he was looking over his sh...