Most people his age would be enjoying retirement, but Moy Soon Weng was hard at work seven hours a day at an economy rice stall.

A slow learner, the 63-year-old diligently prepared the daily lunches and earned only RM10 a day – a pittance compared to the RM50 the stall owner paid her foreign workers.

Moy was thankful that at least his employer, whom he called Ah Soh (“Aunty” in Chinese), did not mistreat him.

But all that changed on March 17, six months after he started working there.

It was 11am and Moy was chopping vegetables when the knife slipped out of his hand and cut his left little finger, leaving him bloodied and in pain.

Moy should have been sent to the clinic just across the street, but Ah Soh merely wrapped his bleeding pinky with plastic and wound a rubber band around it.

“I was still in a lot of pain but was told to continue working, so I did. I had no money to go to the doctor myself, so I left the bandage as it was until my brother saw it two days later.

“He took me to the hospital, but by then the wound had become a lot worse,” said Moy at a press conference called by MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

Doctors at Hospital Kuala Lumpur found that the wound had turned gangrenous despite medication, so they had to amputate two-thirds of Moy’s left pinky on March 29.

Moy and his younger brother Soon Chong, 52, returned to the hawker stall to confront Ah Soh, who ignored their demands for compensation.

Chong, who was approached to help Moy get his dues, said reports were lodged with the police and Social Security Organisation.

“At the moment, we are collecting all the information we need to pursue legal action, but we hope Ah Soh will explain her side of the story to us and try to settle this issue,” he said.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by THE STAR ONLINE

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