Malaysian unions demand meaningful labour law reform

Media Release by Decent Work Working Group at Summit Hotel, Subang Jaya

7 October 2018

Today in Subang Jaya around 80 trade union and civil society representatives have held a consultation meeting to advance meaningful proposals to reform Malaysia’s outdated labour laws. The proposals were put together in line with the ILO’s decent work framework, and are the result of an ongoing process of consultation with workers and unions.

“With the sorry state of unionisation at 8% and the government's hands-off response to employers' union busting activities, unorganised workers fall prey to the capitalist system”, said Bruno Pereira, the General Secretary of Electronic Industry Employees Union Western Region. “The new government must address the asymmetric power between capital owners and workers by removing provisions of Trade Union Act that restrict workers from forming trade unions and bargaining collective agreements.”

Discussion amongst participants highlighted the fact that provisions covering union recognition in the Industrial Relations Act allow employers to evade collective bargaining. The provisions must be replaced with an automatic recognition upon registration with the Ministry of Human Resources.

“Throughout history it has always been collective bargaining between organised workers and their employers that have delivered meaningful increases in workers’ wages and conditions”, said N. Gopal Krishnam, Secretary-General of the National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Workers (NUTEAIW). 

“Here in Malaysia the barriers to forming a union, being recognised by their employer and bargaining a collective agreement have acted as a handbrake on our social and economic development. We are a low wage economy by design, not by accident.”

The proposals cover a wide range of issues including union recognition and collective bargaining, social protection measures like EPF and SOCSO, occupational safety and health, outsourcing and subcontracting, and the rights of migrant workers.

“The situation of migrant workers in Malaysia – particularly undocumented migrant workers – is an area of particular concern. They cannot form unions and have little access to redress mechanisms when their rights are violated”, said Adrian Pereira, Executive Director of the North-South Initiative.

In addition, discussion also focused around organising workers in the digital economy, where workers’ rights are being steamrolled. 

“If we don’t come to terms with how to guarantee the rights of workers engaged through the digital economy then this model will be increasingly favoured by employers”, said Member of Parliament for Klang Charles Santiago. 

Feedback from today’s consultation session will be used to sharpen the existing proposal, and discussions with the Government are expected to begin soon.

End.

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Background

Following the May 2018 change of Government in Malaysia, trade unions and labour NGOs have been working together (under the name the “Decent Work Working Group”) to develop a collective package of proposed legal reforms that would bring Malaysian labour law into compliance with the ILO core standards and the decent work framework. 

On World Day for Decent Work (7 October) the Decent Work Working Group holds a consultation meeting with more trade unions, migrant worker organisations and relevant actors working to expand the protection of labour rights. 

The working group consists of Charles Santiago, N. Gopal Krishnam, Bruno Pereira, Edward Miller, Aegile Fernandez, Adrian Pereira, Ng Yap Hwa, Shalini Muniapan.