Proposed Amendments - Industrial Relations Act 1967 - Unprecedential Scale!!!

Industrial Relations - In a Nutshell....


Industrial Relations are an important aspect of economic and social development in society. A stable and effective industrial relations situation is important for facilitating economic growth and equitable distribution of remuneration to labour. Industrial relations focuses on employer, employee relations with regard to terms and conditions of employment and grievance redressal procedures within the framework of existing legislation. The government plays an important role in ensuring the framework necessary for stable and effective industrial relations. Industrial relations are therefore a shared tripartite responsibility between the three equal social partners in society namely the government, the employer and the trade unions.

The Industrial Relations Act 1967 and its policies had been revised on numerous occasions including the amendments in April 2009, where new policies were introduced to replace the conventional method of membership verification exercise byway of secret ballot, this mandatory exercise has been entrusted to the Department of Industrial Relations, which was formerly carried out by the Director General, Registrar of Trade Unions, with this new amendments the role of DGTU is distinguished and declared redundant.

This piece of legislations and changes in its policies are based partly on the inherited ‘control culture’ of the colonial era, thus it is not surprising to note here that the proposed amendments would induce greater market friendly policies to attract foreign investment and encourage local investors. This new proposal to amend the legislation and its policies is viewed; form the union’s prospective as an aggressive exercise to suppress and deprive the legitimate right of labour to representation and redressal. The current policy refers to trade dispute; means any dispute between an employer and his workmen which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of work of any such workmen’. With the new proposal a workman’s right to appeal and redressal pursuant to Section 20(1) IRA , is sanction and only a trade union can refer a trade dispute under the proposed amendments. If this new proposals were to be accepted by the stakeholders, than the fundamental principle of liberty to livelihood enshrined in the Federal Constitution would become redundant, amendments with such unprecedential scale cannot ensure that turbulence in the production as a result of labour unrest is minimized. Labour rights must be upheld in accordance to common law principle thus under such circumstance the proposed amendments to substitute ‘trade dispute’ and by adopting the word ‘trade dispute’ means where there is a trade union’ must be rejected altogether and status-quo must be maintained, because we construe that such draconian legislation would defeat the right to representation of a workman or workmen.

The proposed amendments would not enhance industrial harmony or create a conducive working environment if the legislative is not prepared to provide adequate protection to workmen. Workers are the pillars of a nation hence the onus is with the government to ensure that their fundamental liberty to security of employment and dignity is protected.

to be continued in the next chapter.....

Women Workers Picketing in the at Can Food Mfg. Company in Kamunting

Book Launch - The Untold Story

BOOK LAUNCHING AT YMCA IPOH ON
SUNDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 2012
BOOK TITLE

“ STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE - BESTCAN WORKERS:

THE UNTOLD STORY

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Thank you Chairperson.

I wish you all a very good morning and warmly welcome each one of you to this book launching programme. It is also a great pleasure to have distinguished professional as panel members here today, their presence and participation in this book launching ceremony would make a profound, and meaningful impact in the annals of history.

First and foremost, I on behalf of the organising committee involved in the launching this Book would like to thank the Chairman of the organising committee Bro. M.B Patrick, and fellow committee members, for their passion, painstaking labour, man-hours devoted in the production of this book demands a round of applause. Firstly, deciding to write the memoirs of the lives, struggle and tribulations and final conquest of the working class people and their destiny needs tremendous energy, journalistic creativity and patience, apparently, this is not an easy assignment to deal with, it was indeed a monumental task like ascending Mt. Everest. A collective mass of creative knowledge has gone into the drafting of the manuscript, data’s, documentary evidence, pictorial images needed to be collected and it took almost five years to complete this book. Besides, the Chairman is assigned with the task of editorial ship, compiling all the manuscripts from fellow co-authors, our late Sdra. Anthonysamy Lazaar, Sdra. Enjothy, Sdra. Alfred and Sdri. Maureen, and forwarding the final manuscript to the printers for printing. It was indeed a monumental task to produce this book and today it is a reality that this book, Titled as ‘STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE – BESTCAN WORKERS: THE UNTOLD STORY” is finally manifested into a book ready to be launched. This book is the collective work of painstaking layman scholarship consciously aimed at a wide readership. This classic biography looks in details at the mechanism between labour and capital, State with their absolute autonomy and control over industrial or urban workers, the continued denial of a decent wage, collective bargaining and security of employment and gender discrimination continued to puzzle and create a vacuum in the lives of innocent workers. In reality, there seems to be no liberation from the oppression of the capitalist based economy as the authors of this book are trying to demonstrate the hidden agenda of the political eunuchs – Alas! But workers’ rights are Human Rights enshrined in the Federal Constitution, yet why must the workers who are revered as the pillars of this beloved nation of ours endure extreme discrimination and oppression for want of a decent living and dignity? This book speaks volumes of aggressions and brutality and the arbitrary imposition of oppressive laws assisted by lunatic uniformed personnel ever ready to conduct an arrest on unsuspecting innocence workers just to serve their grand-masters, and despite such defeating circumstances, and threats, the workers did not despair neither surrender but stood united and finally triumphed – this book stands as a testimony to their struggle for justice and solidarity – the “UNTOLD STORY’.
In conclusion,
This book is a small collection of events, struggles, tribulations and conquest, by a few dedicated workers activist at the Bestcan factory in Jelapang, Ipoh, Perak, who went out the extra mile to unite the workers to form a union without fear or favour, with the hope that the future generation would have a much better wage structure and working conditions.

The purpose of this book is to trace into the history of labour, and its numerous struggles for a decent wage and human endurance; it is an art of sharing their agony, suffering and conquest. Besides, this book can be used as a reference book by scholars, workers, trade union activists, who are interested in the history of the struggle of the labour movement, and I sincerely believe that this book may be of benefit to them for their research work. Further, this book would also inspire young workers to better equip themselves against oppression.

In line with that, I’d like to share a very memorable quote from Martin Luther King Jr., “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” So don’t be afraid to speak up even if you are not that articulate. I know it takes a lot, may be tons of courage, enough courage, to voice out your opinion and express yourself. But courage doesn’t always roar, people. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I will try again tomorrow.”

With that, I once again thank the organizing committee Chairman for giving me an opportunity to say some meaningful words about the book, it was a great honour and I enjoyed it. Thank you.

Arjunan A
Social Activist/Unionist
Speech delivered at the launching of the book.