THE Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has been barred from holding meetings, including one on its triennial elections.

This is due to a suspension order by the Registrar of Societies, following a complaint that the influential private workers’ group, which represents 220 unions, did not conduct its bimonthly general council meetings on time.

MTUC president Abdul Halim Mansor said the congress is unable to hold its much-awaited general council meeting on Sunday to discuss its next elections.

He said the suspension is to allow for a RoS probe into the group, which will take one to two weeks.

The investigation will determine whether MTUC had breached its own rules, which would warrant its deregistration, he told a press conference in Subang Jaya today.

“We have appealed to RoS for us to not get deregistered because MTUC is an important institution. We sit in all meetings with the government on labour issues, we represent Malaysia in the International Labour Organisation, and we represent workers at the industrial court.

“The RoS director knows this, and will take this into account in their investigation.

“We have asked RoS to expedite their investigation as we want to hold the general council meeting as soon as possible, so that we can plan for the triennial delegates’ council meeting (where the elections will be held).”

If MTUC’s suspension is lifted next month, the earliest it can hold the polls is in March or April, as a notice must be issued 12 weeks ahead.

Halim said the congress’ leadership has given a thorough explanation to RoS on the issues that led to the suspension, with the main one being the claim about general council meetings not being held regularly every two months as stipulated in the MTUC constitution.

The general council is the group’s top decision-making body, and includes representatives from each of the 220 unions.

Halim said 10 general council meetings were held between the beginning of 2017, when the new MTUC leadership took office, and December last year.

In 2018, the congress was taken to court because of a decision made in a general council meeting regarding the membership of certain unions.

“Due to the series of court cases, MTUC was prevented by the court from holding further general council meetings until the cases were settled,” said Halim.

After a written judgment was issued on November 29, he said, the MTUC leadership met and set December 29 for the next general council meeting.

“But because a complaint had already been filed with RoS, and it had ordered MTUC to suspend all meetings, we cannot hold the general council meeting on Sunday.” – December 26, 2019.