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KUALA LUMPUR: The war of words between the human resources ministry and the country’s largest employees’ group is far from over with the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) telling the ministry to stop misrepresenting the progress of labour law reform discussions.
The congress’ secretary-general J Solomon claimed the ministry’s recent statement welcoming the support of the MTUC and the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) for amendments to the Employment Act 1955 and Trade Unions Act 1959 gave an inaccurate picture of the true progress of the reform discussions.
Yesterday, the ministry released a statement thanking MTUC and MEF for supporting the amendments to the two acts.
But Solomon said they had only reached consensus on certain areas of the proposed amendments and to defer other areas for further discussion.
“We have not completed (discussing) both the acts. How can the ministry claim we support the amendments of both acts when we have disagreed on some of the ministry’s proposals?” he asked.
The labour law reforms are being carried out through tripartite consultations, involving MTUC, MEF and ministry officials.
Solomon said the MTUC wanted to avoid a repeat of the issue they had with amendments to the Industrial Relations Act 1967 tabled in Parliament on Oct 9 and which they are still protesting against.
That act, he said, was passed in the Dewan Rakyat before completion of deliberation by the technical committee. He claimed that certain amendments would have disastrous implications on unions and workers.
He said at the most recent tripartite meeting, stakeholders were only able to deliberate the Employment Act 1955 but had yet to finalise anything.
“Both MTUC and MEF were able to agree on some amendments and the rest were to be sorted out through bilateral discussions between MTUC and MEF to reach a joint solution.
“There were also amendments which were regressive where MTUC has informed the ministry to make it progressive.”
Solomon said the ministry should give the “true picture” on the functioning of the technical committee or “remain silent” to avoid misrepresentation of the facts.
He said the ministry’s claim that it had always been committed to the process of consultation was not true.
“There was no consultation on three acts prior to them being sent to Attorney-General’s Chambers,” he said adding the consultation came later.
“The ministry has caused enough damage in the Industrial Relations Act amendments and the misrepresentations must stop.”
He added that the amendments were not focusing on creating effective unions and a more robust industrial relations system, as claimed by the ministry.
Solomon urged the ministry to allow MTUC, MEF and the appointed ministry officials the space to conduct their affairs at the technical committee level without any disruption from other officials.
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/…/mtuc-accuses-human-res…/
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