The Malaysian Trades Union Congress will stage a picket outside the Employees Provident Fund headquarters in Petaling Jaya next year in protest over the EPF annuity scheme.

Its secretary-general G Rajasegaran told malaysiakini today that MTUC's new year's resolution is to prepare an action plan to show the authorities that workers' welfare must be taken seriously.

"We have protested in various ways but they (EPF) are still dragging their feet," he said when contacted at the Metal Industry Employees' Union office.

"Instead of listening to our complaints, they are campaigning in a big way," he added, referring to full-page advertisements by several insurance companies in the print media promoting the EPF annuity scheme.

The scheme was first proposed by EPF in May this year and came into effect in July. MTUC is demanding that the scheme be suspended.

Benefits insurance companies

The controversy started when a study conducted by Consumers' Association of Penang showed that the scheme was not beneficial to contributors but was more profitable to insurance companies running the scheme. ([#1] Insurers, not workers, to benefit from EPF annuity scheme [/#], Aug 28)

It did not help when MAA Assurance, the biggest player, announced recently that it will profit about RM9 billion from the annuity business.

MTUC followed with a call to boycott the scheme, with its leadership, especially its president Zainal Rampak, also a senator, being questioned why they (the four MTUC representatives on the EPF board) approved the scheme.

However, Rajasegaran admitted that getting workers together to picket was not an easy task.

"Many of them do not prefer to picket. But if we are pushed to a corner, we have to do it," he said, adding that such a protest often brings results.

He added that the recent picket outside the Human Resources Ministry over the backlog of dismissal cases and rights of workers to form unions was effective.

He said that after the incident many dismissal cases were now being referred to the Industrial Court in a shorter time.

New year's resolution

Rajasegaran also said MTUC's new year resolution includes stepping up the push for a minimum wage for workers.

He said the matter was long overdue. The Human Resources Ministry had assured workers on Labour Day that the government was positive about implementing the policy by the end of the year.

The assurance made MTUC defer a nation-wide picket on the issue.

However, affected plantation workers sent a memorandum to the National Union of Plantation Workers on Wednesday calling for a nation-wide strike.

NUPW rejected the idea yesterday, saying that the matter was now with the Industrial Court.

In an immediate response, MTUC said the workers' request was "reasonable and understandable" after having waited patiently for so long.

Rajasegaran blamed the estate owners for the delay over the wage issue and the government for allowing them the liberty to employ foreign workers with lower income and benefits.

"It is time the government put their foot down and a make a policy stating that estate owners should enhance workers pay, including setting a minimum wage and benefits for workers or else don't bring in foreigners," he said.