-Jiwi Kathaiah, Jan 19, 2012

In its feud with the government over the issue of the amendments to the Employment Act 1955 (EA) that the government had passed in December last year the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) threatens to take the issue to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) should the Prime Minister fail to resolve it.

“We have written to the Prime Minister as the ‘Father of Transformation’ today requesting for a meeting with him to explain to him the objection of the General Council of MTUC to the amendments to the Employment Act 1955”, Abdul Halim Mansoor, the Secretary General of MTUC, told Malaysiakini today when contacted.

This approach is in line with MTUC’s commitment to the spirit of tripartism and the MTUC would really be happy if the chief executive of the government spared some time to carefully listen to views of the representatives of the workers, Abdul Halim said.

“We have not set any time frame for the meeting with the Prime Minister as he is a busy person, but we are serious about meeting him to put our case across to him”, he added.

If the Prime Minister failed to resolve the issue, MTUC would then resort to the last course of action opened to it. “It will report the issue to the ILO. No one can blame us for doing it, because it is an internationally recognised procedure”, Abdul Halim stressed.

No more meeting with the Ministry

We had had a number of meetings with the Minister of Human Resources and his officers on this issue. MTUC is dead against the amendments to the EA proposed by the government, in particular the amendment relating to “Contractor for labour”.

“There was no positive response from the Ministry to all our arguments against the amendments. We will not go back to the Ministry again for any discussion relating to the amendments, especially the Contractor for labour clause”, he said.

To the charge levelled against him by some members of the General Council at its meeting held yesterday (January 18) that he had failed to handle the issue of the amendments to the EA as directed by the General Council and that he had misled the officers of MTUC about the meeting he had with the Human Resources Ministry officers last month on the amendments, Abdul Halim said, “When the Ministry invited us for a meeting, we went and delivered the objection of the General Council, that is, the amendments must be withdrawn as they are not labour friendly.”

This motion to refer the Secretary General Abdul Halim to a committee of inquiry was submitted by Paper Products Employees Union and the National Union of Transport Equipment Workers and it was handed in at the last minute. “It was done with bad intention”, Abdul Halim contended.

However, after two hours of discussion, Halim Said, the motion was dropped. But, the General Council resolved firmly not to have any more meetings with the Ministry of Human Resources.