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SAF Regular Gets Charged For Driving GrabHitch; Netizens Are Enraged

2017-08-24 , 3:55 pm

We all have to face that person who blurts out and reports each and every small little wrong thing you do.

You know, the Pao Toh kias, as they are ‘affectionately’ known.

Case in example, this guy.

Fortunately, these blabbermouths spawn mostly in the Army, so we are reasonably safe from them. (I mean alright, Stomp does breed them, but it has died down a bit)

Unfortunately, for a certain GrabHitch driver, he still has to deal with a Pao Toh Kia even outside of camp.

Poor guy.

SAF Regular gets fined for driving GrabHitch, after getting ‘Pao Toh’ed’

For those lazy to zoom into the essay, here’s a brief synopsis:

SSG XXX, an army regular, was driving GrabHitch in his uniform and picked up a certain Ms Danielle Goh.

After taking her to the appointed destination, she paid him a fee of S$3.50.

The very next day, she sent an email to Mindef, alleging that SSG XXX was moonlighting as a GrabHitch driver.

Investigations started; the case was passed from his unit to Special Investigation Branch (SIB) to General Court Martial (GCM).

It was discovered that he had earned S$1,129 for his services between 26 October 2016 and 14 March 2017, and he didn’t actually acquire the approval of Permanent Secretary( Defence Development) or DMP before receiving his earnings.

He was ultimately convicted by GCM and given a $2,000 fine in default of 2 weeks detention.

And I haven’t even added the fact that he’s facing an offence severity assessment.

Wait, a S$2,000 fine after he slogged 5 months for S$1,129??

Netizens come out with their guns blazing

As always, netizens had their say, but this time it wasn’t just black and white. It wasn’t even black, grey and white. It’s black, grey, maroon and white. (If you don’t understand this unique lingo I’m really just referring to the number of sides in an argument)

There are those that feel you’re ok to do it IF you clear it up with your superiors.

There are those that feel GrabHitch isn’t a job, and so technically he wasn’t in the wrong at all.

Image: mustsharenews.com

There are also those that just berated the driver.

And then there are the ones in the Maroon area.

And some just think this is fake.

Is he really in the wrong?

GrabHitch isn’t like other Grab services; it’s basically a carpooling service. It matches passengers with a driver who’s going towards a similar end point, for a certain fee.

Moonlighting is generally frowned on because it might affect the productivity of the worker. However, in the SSG’s case, this seems highly improbable.

Think about it; the article specifies that he made a total of 140 trips over roughly 5 months.

That equates to less than one trip per day. He could be on the way home from work and wanted to earn some petrol money so he hitched a passenger along the way.

Sounds good to me. It’s not like he ran out to drive people around; it’s environmentally and cost-efficient; best of all, it saves petrol and brings down the number of cars on the road.

But the above logic doesn’t apply in this case because the SSG was charged for “failing to obtain approval for driving GrabHitch.”

According to Asia Law Network, Mr Lau Kah Hee, a partner at Derrick Wong & Lim BC LLP, and Ms Kang Yixian, a partner at Donaldson and Burkinshaw LLP, shared their thoughts on declaring moonlighting activities.

They did not support the notion of moonlighting but did contemplate over the fact that activities outside office hours are technically OTOT.

However, the important part is the contract; does it contain any clauses which guards strictly against secondary jobs? If it does, best not to risk it.

If it doesn’t, you should still clear with your company first. No point giving passengers rides if you’re going to make a loss in the end, right?

At the end of the day

Pick your passengers carefully.

OR you can choose not to wear your number 4 outside. At all.

So, what’s your take on this?

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Feature Image: mustsharenews.com

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