Why place us on lower salary scale, ask contract doctors offered permanent posts

 

Contract doctors say they are getting a raw deal when they enter permanent service. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Contract doctors absorbed into permanent service are placed in a lower category than other medical officers despite doing the same job and shouldering equal responsibility, an anomaly that’s affecting their morale, according to some of them.

Doctors who spoke to FMT say this was “totally unfair” as they did the same job as those who entered the service as permanent officers in UD41 and moved up to UD44 after their two-year housemanship.

However, the contract doctors who also start off at UD41 are placed in UD43 upon being offered permanent posts three years later.

They said not only was there a pay difference of at least RM500 between them, their annual increment was RM225 compared with the RM250 the UD44 doctors got.

Last year, more than 1,000 contract doctors were offered permanent posts while another 3,500 are scheduled to start on Oct 17. There are an estimated 30,000 contract doctors.

One doctor said it was strange that there were two salary scales – one for those who were absorbed directly in the past and another for others who had to go through a three-year contract service before being offered permanent government jobs.

“Those in UD43 are not entitled to receive the RM400 monthly entertainment allowance given to those in UD44. Normally, after four years in this category, medical officers are promoted to the UD48 scale where the basic salary and other allowances go up too.

“So, by placing us in UD43 with nothing given in black and white as to the category we will be placed next, we are losing out quite a bit. This anomaly needs to be rectified,” she said.

Another doctor said this double standard was quite unacceptable as they could not understand the reason for placing them on different scales. “Does the government think we should accept it quietly and be thankful just because they made us permanent officers? Treat us like professionals please,” he said.

Last month, contract dental officers offered permanent posts were told they would be going back to their entry grade upon acceptance of the offer.

In the offer letter to the 300 successful dentists recently, the Public Services Commission said they would be placed on the starting grade of UG41 even if they had already been promoted to UG44 as contract officers. - FMT