Worst Army Experience

I was recalled for a silent mob sometime in Feb this year. It proved to be the worst army experience ever!

Called at 1.45pm, told to report by 3pm. Thank you for the last minute information. Recalled for me should be 2hrs in advance. Rushed down and then ferried to the manning area to set up. Set up was so bad. SAF got so much $$ but not enuff to get decent PC. Our tablet kept hanging and we had to apologise for the cock up! Talk about SAF not owning up to their errors. M hour being 5pm, means we can leave only at 1am. Then head to the equiping centre where we just waited. The reason? Cos it was too late and no public transport. So they wont release us until the next day. Crazy. I heard from internally there was a timing cock up! Supposed to be having M hour at latest 4pm, most prob ard 12-2pm. For their cock up, we have to suffer! No bunks, no shower, just sat and lay on the concrete flooring... in a multi-story carpark!!! Most of us couldnt even sleep! I rather leave camp and take a cab. Ops, i think they are afraid of people wanting to claim for cab fares!

We waited for the sun to raise before we were allowed to book out at around 9am. So tired I had to take the next Monday off to sleep at home. Most of my fellow camp mates do not have such luxury and slogged back to work with only 30% operating capacity.

Then I found out that I was paid for my service from 2.55pm to 11pm on that activation Saturday!!.. so furious I wrote in to complain... Finally they changed.. Read below's email and u will understand why I became more furious after reading that! And to think the gals tot we guys were fortunate for receiving that miserable $100 of Relief Package (fyi, this year I no receive cos I got it last year!). Please bear in mind that we guys have to burn our weekend for errors on SAF part sometimes. Come to think of it, for all the errors and time wastage and burnt weekends, that should work out to roughly $10 or less per day for my sacrifice. Not a bad pay really, considering SAF's standard.

Dear Dian-Hao

National Service is a duty to the Nation. NSmen are given service pay for each day of NS Training, including Saturdays & Sundays. While this cannot fully compensate our NSmen for their commitment and contribution towards NS, service pay serves to recognise each day of contribution made by NSmen.

For oyur recent NS Training, your NS Unit had since amended your attendance to 21 Feb 09 (1455hrs) - 22 Feb 09 (0800hrs). As the total duration is less than 18 hours, your Service Pay for this NS training is still calculated based on one day ($ xx.xx).

Since you did not suffer civilian income loss due to this NS Training, you will not be able to claim make-up pay from MINDEF. Make-up Pay is the difference between your civilian income loss and your service pay for the NS training.MINDEF understands that it is not possible to fully compensate our NSmen for the sacrifice they have made to NS, we appreciate and recognise their contribution through various ways such as granting of NSmen Tax Relief and in the form of additional allocations in asset enhancement schemes such as the GST Credits and Growth Dividends.

We thank you for your feedback and look forward to your continued support of NS.

Lai Hung Yin(Ms)
Customer Service Officer
MINDEF Shared Services -
NPCFOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

-----Original Message-----

To:SAF
Subject:Make-Up Pay Claims

To whom it may concern,

I would like to refer to my recent silent mob call up on 21 Feb 2009. On the http://www.ns.sg/ website, it was indicated that my call up lasted from 1455hrs to 2255hrs. The following queries I have that I would like to understand:

Since the activation was on a weekend, my employer will not be making any claims to SAF?The $xx.xx was the Vocation Pay i was entitled for my being called up?

I belonged to the advance party team where we received the 1st call at 1345hrs. I reached and reported to Jurong camp at 1455hrs. However we stayed at the recall centre until 1am as the M hour was 5pm. We were then transferred to Maju Camp for equiping and only allowed to leave the camp at around 0830hrs the following day. However, these timings were not captured in the system.

Based on the MUP, I was entitled $xx.xx for my service from 1455hrs to 2255hrs on 21 Feb 2009. This was an 8 hours time frame, which is inaccurate. The more accurate timeframe should be from 1455hrs on 21 Feb 2009 to 0830hrs on 22 Feb 2009. This will reflect a 17hrs 35min time frame, which (based on the $xx.xx for 8 hrs) will mean a MUP of around $xx.xx.I believe this is a system error. However, if this is not, then it would be unfortunate that SAF would incur the extra time of their working NSmen without being fair and justified with the MUP. Because of this unexpected overnight call up, most of us ended distracted and tired for work the next day.

I hope to receive your response soon.

Thank you.