MTUC: Malaysia should immediately ratify International Labour Organisation conventions on workers’ rights 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has called on the government to immediately ratify conventions 87 and 98 under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) protocol which touch on the freedom of association and right to organise.

MTUC secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor said the move would ensure workers got decent salaries, good jobs and any benefits they deserved through negotiations and mutual agreements between workers’ unions and employers.

“MTUC wants to see our country achieve the status of a developed nation and it can only be achieved if the workers are given their due rights... MTUC calls on the government to recognise the convention for the benefit of workers across the country,” he said on the ‘Malaysia Petang Ini’ programme produced by Bernama TV today.

Meanwhile, Kamarul Baharin said the government should also consider creating a policy to increase the involvement of employees in unions.

He said the number of workers involved in unions at present was not encouraging with only 500,000 to 800,000 of the 15 million in the Malaysian workforce.

“We hope that the government can introduce a policy so that every company has to create a workers’ union. When the company does not have a labour union, many workers’ rights are denied by the employer,” he said.

In addition, he said MTUC also hoped that the government would review the employment structure in Malaysia, especially through the implementation of the living wage model.

He said that salary increases could increase worker productivity which in turn would contribute to an increase in the country’s productivity, and this had been proven through a study conducted by the Department of Statistics which found that national productivity had increased by 3.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, which is after the implementation of the minimum wage of RM1,500 in May 2022.

“We hope that this wage structure reform will increase productivity and enable Malaysia to be at a level that matches its status as a developed country,” he added. — Bernama