2016 ITUC Global Rights Index - Malaysia

Timber company continues to deny workers union recognition: Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) filed a judicial review on 14 May 2015 seeking to quash a ministerial order on the eligibility of its employees to vote in a secret ballot on whether they wanted to be represented by the Sabah Timber Industry Employees Union (STIEU). SFI workers had been battling for 24 years for union recognition, but had been thwarted at every turn by the company's legal manoeuvres. Two previous attempts to file for recognition, in 2003 under the now defunct Sabah Forest Industries Employees Union and in 2010 as STIEU, had ended with SFI management successfully filing for judicial review. Yet STIEU's 2010 secret ballot results following its claim for recognition revealed it had the support of 85.9 per cent of SFI workers.

Sadly, a stark reminder of the need for a union to protect workers' welfare came on 12 July 2015 when Yiki Janing, aged 51, died at the chip mill division at the SFI's plant in Sipitang while operating machinery. SFI was accused of failing to install a fence on the conveyor machine, which caused the death of Mr. Yaning. In December 2015 the company was formally charged with failing to ensure its workers' safety, health and welfare.

By the end of 2015 STIEU had still not achieved recognition. In the meantime, STIEU reported that SFI was trying to revive the defunct in-house union, and to urge some employees to file cases against STIEU leaders before the Trade Union Activities Department, in an effort to divide members and harass leaders.

Meanwhile, further to complaints filed by the Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), the company is under investigation by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Compliance Advisory Ombudsman of the World Bank for its anti-union practices and failure to comply with ILO Conventions 87 and 98 as required in certification systems and Performance Standards.

Suspected union-busting tactics at Malaysian Airlines: In June 2015 Malaysian Airlines Systems Berhad (MAS Bhd) transferred their assets and airline business to a newly created separate legal entity, Malaysian Airlines Berhad(MAB). The 20,000 MAS Bhd employees lost their jobs, and only 14,000 were taken on by MAB, the new company that took over the Malaysian Airlines, leaving 6,000 out of work. At the same time, the in-house trade unions that existed in MAS Bhd effectively ceased to exist, leaving MAB free of trade unions. Both the former MAS and the new MAB are government owned.

The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) duly applied to the new employer MAB for recognition in a letter dated 11 September 2015. However, MAB did not respond to that application within the 21 days stipulated by law, to either grant recognition or notify it of the grounds for refusing recognition.

NUFAM then reported the matter in writing to the Director General for Industrial Relations on 6 October 2015, again as required by law, in order that the authorities take such steps or make such enquiries to ascertain the "… the competence of the trade union of workmen concerned to represent any workmen or class of workmen…." in MAB. Over 40 days later, the DG for Industrial Relations had not responded to NUFAM.

NUFAM feared that the government-owned airline was mimicking the union-busting behaviour of private-sector companies. Companies have been known to in the past form a new separate legal entity, and then transfer assets and business from the existing company to the new entity, thereby killing off existing unions – forcing workers to start all over again to form, register and get recognition of their unions in the new entity. This strategy has also been used to get rid of workers' leaders and union activists who stood up against exploitation.

Proposed legislative changes will weaken unions: The Secretary General of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) N. Gopal Kishnam warned that the legislative changes proposed under the "11th Malaysia Plan" announced in June 2015 would weaken industrial workers' ability to collectively bargain with their employers.

The text of the 11th Plan states that amendments will be made to the Employment Act 1955, Trades Union Act 1959 and Industrial Relations Act 1967. Those amendments would "address the rigidity of existing dismissal processes" and "increase flexibility in working hours and registration of trade union membership".

The Human Resources Ministry, tasked with amending the laws, had not yet announced what these specific amendments would be, but the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) set out its proposals for what they should contain.

The MTUC expressed concern about several of the MEF's proposals, especially on the reclassification of dismissals. In the case of in so-called voluntary separation schemes (VSS), for example, workers have to choose between two unpalatable options. Gopal cited a case where workers at a factory were given two choices: either sign up to a new employment agreement where they will no longer be union members or take the company's VSS. "Staying on with the company is even worse because there will be no union to protect their interests and their welfare will not be covered by a collective bargaining agreement.".

The MTUC suspects that companies are resorting to more and more coercive VSS and Mutual Separation Schemes (MSS) in order to shed workers or bring down salary costs. "Unlike a retrenchment scheme, you don't have to inform and justify your reasons to the ministry with a VSS and MSS scheme." "The end result with such practices is that more and more workers are forced to give up their rights to unionise", said Gopal. "It's union-busting."