The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has submitted a memorandum to the Human Resources Ministry to highlight several issues relating to the workforce.

Some 200 members of the umbrella body gathered at the ministry in Putrajaya today to submit the memorandum.

NONE However, their initial plan to submit the memorandum to Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam had to be changed as he was attending Parliament. Their list of concerns was then passed to ministry secretary-general R Segarajah.

Under the watchful eyes of more than 20 police officers, the group chanted Bangkit Pekerja thrice as well as Hidup MTUC before dispersing.

MTUC president Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud later said Segarajah has promised to raise the issues with Subramaniam.

He also said MTUC leaders would not hesitate to bring up their concerns to Parliament if these remained unresolved.

mtuc syabas pc 091007 syed shahir "We hope the minister will react to it. If not, we will head for Parliament . We are not being unreasonable as we have given them the chance to resolve the issues," he said.

So far, several memoranda have been submitted to the Prime Minister's Department, but there has been no attention to the issues, he said.

"All we got was (the acknowledgment) 'memo received, contents noted'," he said.

MTUC secretary-general G Rajasekaran said unions have not been able to commence collective bargaining on wages and employment conditions up to now.

He said they have been waiting for the ministry has yet to draft the relevant regulations, following amendments to the Industrial Relations Act 1967 in February last year.

“It was only this morning that Segarajah broke the news to us that the regulations had been gazetted on Oct 8.”

Issue with dismissals

In the memo, entitled ‘Denial of Collective Bargaining’, MTUC had highlighted the absence of the regulations, saying all claims submitted to the director-general of industrial relations after February 2008 could not be processed.

The body had raised the matter with the human resource minister at the National Labour Advisory Council on July 23 and had been assured that the regulations would come into force “within one month”.

factory workers 021208 MTUC pointed out that, under Section 9 of the Industrial Relations Act, workers’ claims should be settled within 21 days but that in practice it takes as long as 18-24 months.

"Employers openly defy the labour laws and often refuse to cooperate with the industrial relations department," stated the memo.

MTUC also claimed that the government has denied unions the right to intervene in disputes relating to dismissal.

"Even in glaring cases of dismissals, deliberately carried out to victimise union officials and bust the unions in their workplaces, industrial action is not permitted," said MTUC.

It charged that the delay in the conciliation process at the Industrial Relations Department and the long time taken by the ministry to refer unresolved disputes to the Industrial Court, have caused dismissed workers to wait more than five years for a decision.

The body expressed disappointment with the minister for not having acted on the wage council's recommendation on the minimum wage for each sector. This has been pending for more than four years, added MTUC.