‘Revoke ministerial power to refer workers’ case to court’

Employees should also be granted the freedom to form unions without prior approval from the authorities, says union leader A Sivananthan.

PETALING JAYA: A union leader today chastised the sole power granted to the Human Resources minister to refer an employee’s dismissal conflicts to the Industrial Court, saying that such power has greatly curtailed the employee’s chance of seeking justice.

National Union of Drinks Industry Workers Peninsular Malaysia (Nudiw) Internal Relations Officer A Sivananthan said that under Section 20 (3) of Industrial Relations Act 1967, an employee who has been dismissed without a just cause could only bring the case to the Industrial Court through the minister.

The law stipulates that the employee has to lodge a complaint with the director-general of the ministry within 60 days of dismissal, and the minister would refer the representations to court if it is deemed fit.

“The power should be revoked because a worker (employee) only has 24 months to complete a court case after dismissal, but the minister is consuming so much of time to refer the case to court,” he said at a press conference after the launching of workers’ manifesto today.

Workers Union of West Territory Electronic Industries president Wan Noorul Azhar said of the 31,000 workers who lodged complaints with the ministry, more than 10,000 of them did not have their cases brought to the court in the end.

“This highlighted the need for workers’ case to be automatically brought to the court,” he said.

Sivanathan also questioned the discretion of the director-general of trade union affairs department to decide the setting up of a union.

“Trade unions act as a balancing power between capital and labour. Who is the director-general to decide workers’ right (to form union)?

“This is like previously we could go to washroom whenever we want, but now we have to ask for permission from them before we go,” he said.

Meanwhile, National Union of Bank Employees (Nube) official  A Karuna pointed out that despite the increase in the number of trade unions – from 631 in 2006 to 702 last year, memberships in the unions have however dropped from 801,585 to 798,250.

Karuna attributed the drop to stringent control by the trade union affairs department, mushrooming of in-house trade unions which were deemed to be less vocal, over emphasis on pay rise but not the other aspects by some unions and collective exploitation by employers, government and the judiciary system.

Leader of about 20 unions today unveiled a five-point manifesto through an umbrella group called Malaysia Workers Network (MWN) to ask for better rights from employees.

The manifesto called for politicians to pledge to provide a RM1,500 floor wage per month, recognise workers’ rights, provide social security protection, improve workers’ health and security conditions and uplift workers’ well-being.