Day +106

I am fine today.

My wife is a government school teacher teaching in Chinese primary school. Due to my sickness, she applied for half-paid leaves from January 2006 until she gave birth to Aaron in the middle of April 2006. The government servants here are entitled for six months of half-paid leaves under certain circumstances. After the two months full-paid maternity leaves from middle of April to the middle of June 2006, she finished off the balanced half-paid leaves entitlement and then applied for unpaid leaves. With this, she takes one year leave and only needs to teach when the school opens in January 2007.

She still received her full salary and allowances even though she is on half-paid or un-paid leaves until now. This means the government is overpaying her. A few days ago, she received a notice from her school that required her to pay back the overpaid amount to the government. The total amount that she owed the government is about RM16400. The proposed pay-back consists of a one-off payment of RM9600, with the balance of RM6800 to be deducted from her next year salary.

I am “amazed” to know that the education department needs almost one year to adjust her salary. It is just like an old car that needs one year to stop after applying the brake. Who know a transplant will fix the problem?

See you next post :-)