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KUALA LUMPUR: Top leaders of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) yesterday met members of the National Senate Council in a last-ditch bid to stop the Labour Laws Reform (LLR) Bill.
MTUC’s delegation was led by its president Abdul Halim Mansor and secretary-general J Solomon, among others.
Senate council president Khairuddin Samad said it had noted that certain provisions of the bill were detrimental to workers.
“We listened to Halim and Solomon who briefed us on how the bill was passed without the final proposal and consultation with the main stakeholders, MTUC and Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF),” he said.
He said a main problem is that the National Labour Advisory Council, which MTUC is a part of, was not shown the final draft of the bill before it was tabled by Human Resources Minister M Kula Segaran.
“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,” Khairuddin said.
Khairuddin also said he would urge senators to raise MTUC’s objections when the bill is tabled in the Dewan Negara next week.
But he said MTUC would find it hard to achieve its aim as Dewan Negara is now controlled by Pakatan Harapan (PH) senators.
“So I wish to urge the PH senators to consider the valid arguments of MTUC and vote according to their conscience and for the well-being of Malaysia,” he added.
“They are not asking for the bill to be withdrawn but for the good laws to be kept and the bad ones removed.”
MTUC said the bill would weaken unionism in the country and make workers poorer.
It said by not consulting MTUC and MEF, the government had violated the International Labour Organisation Convention 144 ratified by Malaysia.
“We urge the senators to consider the livelihoods of the 15 million workers, their families and the nation’s interest instead of supporting the minister’s wrongful action in proposing bad laws,” said MTUC’s Halim.
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com