No change in pay for relief teachers, says NUTP

By Patrick Lee - Free Malaysia Today,

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) has disputed allegations that allowances for relief teachers in the country had been tampered with.

“I think Tony (Pua) has made a mistake,” said Lok Yim Pheng, NUTP secretary-general.

PJ Utara MP Tony Pua had alleged that relief teachers in both Selangor and Penang have had their daily wages cut by as much as 66%.

It was claimed that as a result, degree-level and retired relief teachers earned as little as RM50 a day.

Lok said the actual amount had not been changed, adding that relief teachers had been paid allowances instead of wages. (see table)

“State education departments cannot reduce the allowances without prior approval from the Education Ministry,” she said.

Lok also said that although relief teachers were paid on a day-to-day basis, they still had to claim the full payment from the ministry by the end of the month.

She told FMT that there were three types of relief teachers -- teacher-college-trained, untrained and untrained attachment teachers (GSTT).

She said college-trained relief teachers belonged to a special category known as the National Reserved Teachers Group. This group consists of both former and retired teachers. (Former teachers are those who left the teaching profession.)

While the first two categories are meant to replace teachers who go on leave, such as maternity leave, for a few months, GSTT teachers are usually on six-month to one-year contract.

However, Lok said that certain schools may have received reduced allocations due to some “financial crisis”. As a result, these schools had to cut back on costs, including the number of relief teachers.

“For example, a school can only hire one relief teacher instead of two,” Lok said. “Then the school has to do some readjustments (to their schedules) to reduce the workload (among teachers).”