The government will continue to impose a ban on a national union for workers in the electronics sector, said Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn today.

He said it has always been government policy to only allow the establishment of in-house unions for the electronics sector.

"Many electronics companies (in Malaysia) have effective in-house unions," he quipped.

The minister had earlier announced that his ministry was considering amending a number of labour laws including the Employment Act 1955, the Trade Unions Act 1959 and the Industrial Relations Act 1967, but it will not lift the ban on electronics workers to form a national union.

The formation of a national union for the electronics sector is a long-standing issue dating back to the early 1970s.

Protracted struggle

It was only in 1988 that the government relented and allowed electronic workers to form in-house unions as opposed to a national union.

The first electronics in-house union, RCA Workers Union, was formed in January 1989.

The company, RCA Sdn Bhd, attempted to kill the union by changing the name of the company twice.

In-house unions must strictly follow the name of their company, and should there be a name change, such unions are required to do the same.

The company eventually sacked the entire executive council of its in-house union as well as 11 active members.

After six years of protracted struggle, the unionists finally won their case for wrongful dismissal in the Court of Appeal in August 1996, and secured reinstatement to their jobs with full payment of back wages.

According to the Trade Unions Affairs Department, there were eight in-house unions in the electronics industry representing 4,400 workers, eight years after the government lifted the ban on in-house unions.

Gross misrepresentation

Malaysia is a major exporter of electrical and electronics products which contributed about US$46.9 billion to the economy in 1999.

Fong said that it was a "gross misrepresentation" for the government to be perceived as anti-union and suppressing labour.

"The government stands on its record of even-handedness in holding the balance between capital and labour, and in furthering the growth of trade unionism and the interests of labour," the minister said at the opening ceremony of the National Symposium on Employment Relations in the New Malaysia Era in Kuala Lumpur.

Fong also added that working standards in Malaysia have been continually raised by improvements in labour laws.

"We have been more fortunate than most countries. The basic framework and procedures in our employment relations have stood the test of time. We can build for ourselves a developed nation that will be the source of pride for every Malaysian," he said.