updated version

The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) General Council's working committee this evening unanimously agreed to hold a nationwide picket on May 12 to protest against the Employees Provident Fund's (EPF) investment policies.

"We have decided to do this because we are very worried and fear that EPF's annual dividends may slide down to as low as 2.5 percent," MTUC president Zainal Rampak told a press conference at the MTUC headquarters in Subang Jaya.

All the 130 MTUC affiliates who attended the emotionally-charged, two-hour working committee meeting agreed to the picket, he added.

He said that MTUC had not been aware that the government planned to host the Asean Labour Meeting on May 12 in Kuala Lumpur and would maintain that date for its picket.

The government has expressed its opposition to the picket and called on the body to drop the action.

Yesterday, Human Resources Ministry secretary-general Syed Muhamad Syed Abdul Kadir claimed MTUC had agreed to rethink its decision on its May 12 nationwide picket.

To this, Zainal said had conveyed to the general council the Human Resources Ministry's request that the MTUC picket be changed to another date but the request was turned down.

MTUC's general council is its highest decision-making body for its 230 affiliates with a membership of about 500,000 members.

Maintain 11 percent

On the two percent reduction in workers' EPF contributions announced by the government recently as a measure to boost local spending, Zainal said MTUC was happy to note Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recent announcement that it was optional.

"However, the reduction is illegal according to the EPF Act and the government has no right to make the reduction. The government only has the right to increase the contribution to 15 percent," said Zainal.

"We advise anyone whose company has reduced his or her EPF contribution to go outside the company and picket. They can also make a police report on possible criminal breach of trust," he added.

Zainal said MTUC had informed all national and in-house unions to advise their members to maintain their EPF contributions at 11 percent.

"You need to use form KWSP 17A - but only if you want to increase your contribution. It is not necessary if you want to reduce it," he said.

However, it has been reported that EPF required those who want to maintain their contribution at 11 percent must filled out the KWSP 17A form. If this is not done, employers are told to assume that their employees would want to contribute at the new rate of nine percent.

Meeting with EPF

Zainal told reporters that the EPF picket would be peaceful and reiterated that MTUC's decision was lawful under the Trade Unions Act.

He also said MTUC had accepted EPF's invitation for a meeting on April 27 where the fund's chief executive officer Azlan Zainal and chairperson Abdul Halim Ali would be present.

"We will present a comprehensive memorandum at this meeting to outline our fears and state EPF's failure in investments over the past 10 years," said Zainal.

"If EPF gives a guarantee that it will resolve all the problems stated in the memorandum, we will call off the picket. But if EPF merely says 'we will review this and that', the picket will go on," he said.

On Nov 26 last year, MTUC's general council unanimously decided to hold the controversial picket outside the EPF headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to protest against alleged misuse of EPF funds.

It said MTUC members were upset with the EPF for allegedly bailing out politically-connected companies and its dropping annual dividends, which at the six percent last year, was the lowest in 26 years.

Bail out

The EPF had caused several ripples by announcing several controversial schemes such as the latest EPF annuity scheme, which is a pension scheme for contributors through several appointed insurance companies.

A study by the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) last year claimed the scheme to be more beneficial to the insurance companies than to EPF contributors who opted for it.

Recently, EPF also announced a scheme where contributors can purchase personal computers through Pos Malaysia.

MTUC said EPF contributors felt shortchanged when they found out the same models offered by Pos Malaysia could be purchased outside at a lower price.

Matters came to a head when the EPF, which has 9.7 million members, agreed to take up an unsubscribed portion of the initial public offering (IPO) of Time dotCom Bhd. Observers say the move was to bail out the politically-connected company due to expectation the IPO would not fare well.

Time dotCom Bhd's IPO was undersubscribed by 75 percent and its share prices have since dropped.