KUCHING: Malaysian Trades Union Congress (Sarawak Division) is pleased with strong support lately, including from Ministers and some employers, to set up General Unions to protect the rights of workers.
MTUC Sarawak Division Secretary Andrew Low said unfortunately, the restrictive Trade Unions Act does not allow general unions for workers and membership of any trade union is confined to only those who are employees in a particular industry, establishment, trade and occupation.
He said a trade union enhances the economic status of its members; improves working conditions; boosts their productivity and job value and provides protection against discrimination and unfair treatment.
“A bank employee can only be a member of a Banking Union…he cannot be a member of an airline union or teachers union and a hotel employee, a timber worker or a labourer cannot be members of the same union,” he said in an email to Bernama here today.
He said for enterprise or in-house unions, membership was only for employees of that particular establishment or company and even employees of a subsidiary or an associate company cannot join that particular union.
Andrew said data showed that only 3.74 percent of the workers in the private sector are union members and only 2.11 percent are covered by a collective agreement.
He said there has been a huge increase, 58 percent, in the number of in-house unions but the actual membership increased by only 12 percent while the workforce actually increased by 67 percent.
“This means that most unions have less than 500 members and quite a number have less than 50 members,” he added.
He said on union in Sarawak has only 12 members. — BERNAMA