THE Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) has met with the senate in an ultimate attempt to prevent the passing of the Labour Laws Reform (LLR) Bill in the Dewan Negara.

MTUC said it met with the National Senate Council yesterday to persuade the senators not to pass the bill, which it said was “aimed at killing unionism”.

The MTUC delegation also submitted a detailed report on why the bill should be returned to the National Labour Advisory Council for a review before being tabled again in the next parliament sitting.

MTUC president Abdul Halim Mansor had explained to the council members how the bill would weaken unions and make workers poorer.

“We urge the senators to consider the livelihoods of the 15 million workers, their families and the nation’s interests instead of supporting the minister’s wrongful action of proposing bad laws,” Halim said in a statement from MTUC today.

Halim and secretary-general J. Solomon had led the MTUC delegation. 

Halim said changes to the bill were made without prior consultation with MTUC and the Malaysian Employers Federation, hence violating the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 144 ratified by Malaysia. 

“The senate is a key institution which has the final vote to ensure laws that are not fair and adverse to Malaysians are not passed. It must show that it is there to serve the country and we believe in the members of the senate. 

“We are for labour law reform but not in this manner, which if endorsed, will appear as state-sponsored union busting.”

“By sending back the IR Bill, Pakatan Harapan (would be) keeping its election pledge to reform parliamentary democracy.

The two provisions of concern are Section 12, which allows multiple unions in the same category to exist in the same workplace, and Section 20 which allows union representation to expand beyond unions, MTUC and MEF by letting consultants represent workers

MTUC noted that Section 12 will weaken the power of negotiation of the Union resulting in industrial disharmony, productivity will be impacted and the economy of the country will be adversely affected, while Section 20 will result in workers representation being commercialised and burdened by high costs and this will affect workers welfare adversely.

Calling these changes severely damaging, MTUC said this will set back the unions and weaken their rights and bargaining powers while effecting industrial disharmony.

MTUC said Senate Council president Khairuddin Samad and Dewan Negara members had agreed to meet MTUC after taking note that there were provisions in the bill which were indeed detrimental to the industrial harmony currently enjoyed by the workers.

 “We listened to MTUC president Datuk Halim Mansor and Secretary-General J Solomon who briefed us on how the Bill was passed without the final proposal and consultation with the main stakeholders MTUC and MEF,” National Union of Bank Employees newsletter Suara NUBE quoted Khairuddin as saying.

“We were told that Human Resources Minister YB M. Kula Segaran had promised to table the final draft at the NLAC meeting before being submitted to the AG’s Chambers. Based on the chronology of events shown to us, it was clear that the draft was shown to MTUC only after it was sent to the AG’s Chambers,” he added. 

He promised to urge senators to raise MTUC’s objections and arguments when the bill is tabled in the Dewan Negara next week. – December 10, 2019.