Lab assistants are leaving the government service and seeking greener pastures in private universities and colleges. The reason is simple: double the pay.

Lab assistants in private colleges earn an average of RM1,300 compared to their counterparts in public universities.

When contacted, a senior lab assistant with Sunway University College, who declined to be named, said an entry level lab assistant with Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) qualifications and no experience gets paid RM900 while those with a minium one-year experience get RM1,200 per month.

Apart from this, there is also a one or two month bonus depending on the institution's financial performance, he added.

This is in contrast to public universities where a lab assistant's entry-level pay scheme of RM660 is currently under negotiations between unionists and the government.

According to the lab assistant with Sunway University College, the low pay scheme has led to an exodus of lab assistants from the government service.

"When those from the government service join the private sector, they are pleasantly shocked to learn about the two month bonus," he said.

He added that new lab assistants in the private sector are given extensive training in handling a fully equipped university-grade lab and are also sent to seminars.

Meanwhile, Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU) human resources officer Kim Eng told malaysiakini that the college paid its science and engineering lab assistants around RM1,300.

VC agreees

In a related development, Universiti Malaya General Workers Union general-secretary K Vinothan said he met with university's vice-chancellor to negotiate for a better pay scheme for lab assistants.

He said Rafiah, who is the university's first female VC, agreed in principle that the job scope of public university lab assistants were more specialised than their secondary school counterparts and therefore should have a better pay scheme.

Vinothan said he would bring the case to the vice- chancellor's committee, which would make an appeal to the Ministry of Higher Education and Public Service Department.

On Monday, Vinothan said lab assistants in public universities have the same service scheme as their counterparts in secondary schools despite the former having to handle specialised equipment and dangerous chemicals.

As an example, he said a lab assistant with the Malaysian Institute of Nuclear Technology has to handle radioactive material but falls under the same salary scheme.

Vinothan said his union, formed in 1963, has requested the Public Service Department (PSD) and Ministry of Higher Education to review the service scheme over the last eight years to no avail.