Approximately 9,000 workers in Johor were retrenched this year, 77 percent from the construction sector and the remainder from the manufacturing sector, the Johor Malaysian Trades Union Congress told malaysiakini .

Johor MTUC secretary-general Bosco Augustine said many workers do not complain about retrenchment problems because they do not know where to turn to as their companies, especially those in the electronics sector, are not unionised.

"Furthermore, once these workers have received their retrenchment benefits, they feel satisfied - until their money runs out," Augustine said.

The numbers recorded by the state worker's congress is higher than those registered by the Human Resources Ministry which is 6,901 for this year.

According to the ministry's website, a total of 32,339 workers in the country were retrenched in the past 10 months. Last week, 374 workers were retrenched, lower than the 933 workers in the week before that.

The ministry reported that Selangor has the highest number of retrenchment cases (45.5 percent or 170 workers), followed by Johor (21.1 percent or 79 workers), Penang (17.9 percent or 67 workers) and other states (15.5 percent or 58 workers).

No retrenchment, however, was reported in six states - Kelantan, Pahang, Sabah, Labuan, Sarawak and Terengganu.

The ministry report added that approximately 77 percent of the retrenchment (520 workers) was in the manufacturing sector followed by construction (11.2 percent or 42 workers). The remainder (11.8 percent or 44 workers) was in other sectors.

The main reasons for retrenchment were reduction in demand for products (55.9 percent or 19 employers), company re-organisation (8.8 percent or three employers) and others (35.3 percent or 12 employers), the ministry said.

Women at risk

Meanwhile, Augustine who is also the secretary-general for the Johor Textile and Garment Union said that casual women workers may face problems when the impact of globalisation and the current economic downturn hits the industries.

Most of these women are not interested in joining unions as they are piece-rated workers who take their work home and are not bound by work contracts, he said.

"These are mostly housewives who prefer the freedom of being contract workers. They shy away from organising themselves in case they get harassed or lose their jobs because they are highly replaceable," said Augustine.

It appears to be a win-win situation for the employers as they benefit in various ways such as not being compelled to contribute to the Employees Provident Fund, bonuses, overtime and other allowances.

The companies also stand to gain when they reduce intake of their formal workers and relegate most of the work to casual ones although this clearly contravenes the Business Code of Conduct in the industry where clients insist that work is done by formal employees to ensure high-quality products.

"As the workers are not unionised, this is done without anyone's knowledge," said Augustine.

There are also the problems of dismissal, payment, safety and health which cannot be addressed if workers remain anonymous and distant from the employers without realising their rights and benefits if they were represented by a formal body such as a union or the MTUC.

For these reasons, Augustine believes that workers should be represented but admits that it is difficult organising them as they cannot be located.

Job insecurities

He said if the workers were reluctant to organise themselves, the government must then be proactive and amend laws that would recognise these workers as employees so that they can be protected by the Employment Act.

However, it is not only informal workers who face such job insecurities but also formal workers who are not unionised.

He related two recent incidents of workers being unfairly dismissed. A Singapore-based company terminated 250 of its workers when they refused to travel from Masai to Kluang for training.

"The company held a domestic inquiry and found everyone guilty. It then terminated the workers and relocated to Batang," said Augustine.

"Another factory dismissed 120 of its 230 workers when they went in a group to ask the management why they did not have an annual pay increment. The management considered their action as an illegal strike and held a domestic inquiry, later sacking them. The company has since closed operation but the matter with the employees is with the Industrial court," he added.