Long deprived of a strong voice in the Malaysian labour movement, several ex-trade union women leaders have set up a pro tem committee pending the registration of the Malaysian Association of Working Women.

Its proponents say things are looking promising for the association that is poised to become an additional platform for women to, among others, lobby for more substantial representation at various decision-making levels.

The move is led by former Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) womens wing chairperson Silam Hassan, who said that it was not quite unlike a trade union because the issues are all common ones.

Silam, the associations pro tem president, said the idea was to provide women whose progress have been stumped by the male-dominated labour movement leadership with a new platform to continue their struggle more effectively and with concrete results.

We will cater for the practical needs of working women at all levels in the private or public sectors regardless of whether they are unionised employees or management staff, including their development at the workplace, she told malaysiakini today.

Silam said one of the aims is to educate women workers on their rights during a labour crisis situation like retrenchment.

She also stressed the importance of getting women moving in tandem with the changing global trends, or risk lagging behind by their Western counterparts.

Ive been told that even women in the government sector feel they are not properly represented, she said.

Womens issues

For starters, Silam said they will try to gain some ground on issues like the provision of child-care centres at workplaces, sexual harassment and post-retrenchment trauma faced by women.

For example, she said, women lose a lot more than men in terms of job seniority and salary when they go on leave or quit for a few years to care for their newborns.

She added that the application to register the association, submitted late last year, is expected to be approved within a month or two.