The Malaysian Trade Union Congress has vowed to go on with its proposed picketing next Wednesday against anti-union attitude among employers despite warnings from the Human Resource Ministry.

The MTUC is planning to picket in front of the ministry in Damansara, Petaling Jaya, to highlight the increasing anti-union attitudes of many companies and employers, and also to ask the minister Dr Fong Chan Onn to advise the employers to comply with the Code for Industrial Harmony.

"Under Section 9 of the Industrial Relations Act, union recognition claims should be settled within 21 days but in practice it is taking as long as 12 to18 months. Employers openly defy the labour laws and often refuse to cooperate with the Industrial Relations Department,"said MTUC secretary-general G Rajasekaran in a press statement today.

New Straits Times today quoted Fong as saying that the Industrial Relations Act provides only for unions registered under the Trade Unions Act (TUA) to picket on issues pertaining to wage disputes with employers, and MTUC, which is not registered under the TUA, would be contravening the law if it were to picket.

Contacted by malaysiakini , Rajasekaran commented that Fong's statement was "confusing and unclear", as the planned picket on Oct 11 would not be the first for MTUC.

"In the past, MTUC has picketed at the Human Resource Ministry, the Prime Minister's Department, the Employees' Provident Fund, Parliament and even along the highway against toll rates (photo).

"In any case, many political parties, including Umno and MCA, that are also registered under the Societies Act have picketed at foreign embassies and other places to highlight their views," he added.

Though he conceded that the Fong has indeed taken positive steps to deal with employer-employee disputes by increasing the number of chairpersons to sit at Industrial Courts, the backlog of cases was too big, with some cases taking two to three years to clear.

The minister's failure to comment on the unduly long delay in settling unions' claims shows his lack of understanding of the problems faced by workers in the workplace, Rajasekaran said.