KUCHING, Dec 29 — The Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) Sarawak today urged the Human Resources Ministry to look into complimentary amendments to the Trade Unions Act (TUA), Employment Act (EA) and Sarawak Labour Ordinance (SLO) to bring the country’s labour standards to international level.

Its secretary Andrew Lo said this is crucial in an era of global trade as exemplified by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreements.

“As we move into the digital economy, antiquated regressive policies must be thrown out and we must adopt international best practices.

“Some of the amendments to the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) relating to the freedom of association and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 87 cannot be implemented unless complimentary amendments to the TUA are passed,” he said when asked to explain on his call for the ministry to forge ahead with the complimentary amendments.

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Lo said the EA and the SLO are parts of the labour law reforms that seek to improve worker's rights such as maternity leave and working hours.

He added the EA was last amended in 2012, including on sexual harassment while part-timers are not reflected in the SLO, which was last amended in 2004.

He agreed that the labour ordinance is “hopelessly antiquated” and needs major improvement.

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Lo said MTUC Sarawak welcomes the recent announcement by Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Saravanan that the relevant amended parts of the Industrial Relations Act will be implemented with effect from January 1 next year.

“We believe that the amendments will lead to a more proactive industrial relationship, improve worker’s rights, encourage more professional human resources management by employers that will in turn increase labour productivity and make our businesses more competitive both locally and internationally.

“Although MTUC Sarawak is disappointed that not all MTUC’s proposals are reflected in the amendments, it is, nevertheless, optimistic that the amendments will be far more positive for workers and the labour movement, the economy, and the country.

“Businesses thrive by empowering workers, not exploiting them,” Lo said.

According to Saravanan, the Industrial Relations Act 1967 (Act 177) which was amended in December last year will come into force on January 1, 2021, to improve the protection of workers’ rights in the country.

He said the key areas of amendments included the repeal of the human resources minister's power to refer representations on dismissal cases to the Industrial Court which will instead be given to the director-general for Industrial Relations as well as the repeal of discretionary power to refer cases to the Industrial Court without further filtering.

Other amendments were the employer or employee may be represented by any person of their choice, except lawyers, during the conciliation process at the Department of Industrial Relations and the application of the provision of representation on reinstatement (Section 20) may be extended to employees of statutory bodies by order of the Human Resources Minister, after consultations with the statutory body.