Dewan Rakyat passes trade union amendment bill via voice vote

 

PARLIAMENT | The Dewan Rakyat today has passed the Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill 2022 via a voice vote.

The bill - which aims to abolish restrictions on the formation of trade unions based on specific establishments or similarities in trades, occupations or industries as well as to allow a multiplicity of trade unions - was debated by 14 MPs from both sides of the political divide.

This bill passed today contains the same proposed amendment which was read and passed in the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 5 last year.

However, the bill did not make it to the Dewan Negara as Parliament was dissolved on Oct 10.

Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar, in delivering his winding-up speech in the august House today, said the multiplicity of trade unions is expected to have a good impact - especially on workers - besides giving freedom to the workers to join or establish unions according to their own choice.

“In order to ensure that the harmony of the company can be maintained, a union is allowed to limit its membership, whereby a worker who has been a member of this union, is not allowed to be a member of another trade union.

“It is the government’s hope that with the amendment of Act 262, it will create more mature, progressive, healthy, and competitive trade unions to ensure that employee benefits can be increased,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

Sivakumar added that the amendment will be able to increase trade union membership by between 50,000 and 100,000 while the number of unions is expected to increase from 756 to 800 trade unions, according to estimates.

“The ministry is confident that this amendment to the act will increase the membership of trade unions. 

“The ministry has already planned and implemented several initiatives to realise this matter,” he said.

He said this in response to issues raised by M Kulasegaran (Pakatan Harapan - Ipoh Barat) and Shaharizukirnain Abdul Kadir (Perikatan Nasional - Setiu) on whether the amendment would be able to increase the membership of trade unions.

Only one can negotiate

Meanwhile, addressing concerns raised by Kulasegaran and Teresa Kok (Harapan - Seputeh) on which union would have the negotiation power if more than one union exists in a workplace, Sivakumar said the government has created a mechanism which allows a sole bargaining right.

“This is if there are two or more unions in a workplace through the amendment of (The Industrial Relations Act 1967) Act 177, which was approved by Parliament on Dec 19, 2019, only one trade union is allowed to negotiate with the employer to sign a collective agreement.

“The director-general of industrial relations may take steps to determine the application or conduct a secret ballot to enable the workers involved to choose a union to represent them in the collective bargaining.

“The union that gets the highest vote will have the sole bargaining rights until another union gets that right,” he clarified.