CLOSE to RM1 million in compensation for workers awarded by the industrial court are now in limbo after the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) was suspended.

This is because the money is channelled through MTUC’s accounts before it is disbursed to the beneficiaries, said workers’ organisation president Abdul Halim Mansor.

MTUC, a federation of private sector unions, often appoints officers and lawyers for workers in disputes at the industrial court.

Halim said MTUC’s financial secretary abruptly resigned late last month and could not be contacted. 

The officer is responsible for signing the compensation cheques.

“A new financial secretary can only be appointed by the general council meeting. But because we have been suspended, we cannot hold a general council meeting,” Halim said.

The general council is MTUC’s top decision-making body that comprises delegates from each of its affiliated 220 unions.

These unions represent about 400,000 workers across all sectors in the country, from manufacturing to services to plantations.

The congress was suspended by the Registrar of Societies on Monday following complaints that MTUC’s current leadership was not holding regular general council meetings every two months.

It is also alleged that MTUC did not update its online financial statements for 2017 and 2018 and that it had wrongly appointed two permanent staff members.

Halim said MTUC explained to RoS that general council meetings could not be held in 2018 and 2019 because of a pending court case.

When the case was decided recently, MTUC office-bearers decided that a general council meeting would be held on December 29. That meeting is supposed to set the date for the next triennial delegates’ congress (TDC).

But because of the suspension, that general council meeting could not go ahead, Halim said.

“So, we must get this suspension lifted before we can hold a new general council meeting and appoint a new financial secretary.”

MTUC’s inability to hold general council meeting and TDCs also impacted on the updating of online records of its financial statements.

“We only send to the RoS financial statements that had been approved by the general council and TDC. Only the 2015 and 2016 ones have been approved.

“The 2017 and 2018 ones have yet to be approved and we can only do that once we hold the general council meeting and TDC.” – December 27, 2019.