Statutes Governing Trade Unions in Malaysia

There are three main statutes which govern the trade unions in Malaysia which are the
Employment Act 1955 (EA), the Trade Union Act 1959 (TUA) and the Industrial
Relations Act 1967 (IRA).

Weakness of Trade Unions in Malaysia

Trade unions in Malaysia had a weak start which was deliberately set up by the British
Colonial Government in order to eliminate the influence of the communists on the
Malaysian Trade Union movement.1 The trade unions in Malaysia today do not have a
favourable environment with regards to the legal and institutional aspect.2

Apart from that, s.2(2) of the TUA 1959 also limits the memberships in trade union to
workers in similar trades which in turns proscribes the emergence of large resilient
national unions envisaged by the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) and is also

1 V. Anantaraman Supra n 5 pp 3-5In 1947, the communist dominated general

labour union established in Singapore in October 1945 was renamed the Pan
Malaysia Federation of Trade Unions (PMFTU). At that time, it was estimated that of
the 289 unions with a total membership of nearly 200,000, 117 unions with about
half the total membership were under communist control effectively exercised
through the PMFTU.

2 Nagiah Ramasamy, 'The Future and Challenges Of The Of The Trade Union
Movement in Malaysia ' (Union Executive CIMB Bank (UEC) First Area Committee
Conference, Swiss Garden Damai Laut, Pangkor, Malaysia 23-25 February
2008)<http://www.unioncimb.org.my/home/news/TheFutureoftheTUMovementinMsiaCIMBConferenceArticle.pdf> accessed 9 August 2015

the cause that MTUC is not recognised as a federation of trade unions under TUA 1959. 3
Based on TUA 1959, the government has the absolute right in granting union registration.

In the chapter entitled Prosperity at a Price: Regulation of Organised Labour in

Malaysia in Law and Development in East and South-East Asia, the following
paragraph clearly highlights the weakness in the trade union movement in Malaysia:
Hallmarks of the Malaysian industrial law include tight regulations of trade
unions, their activities and the conduct of industrial relations. The absence of
statutory direction for the exercise of these powers, coupled with a diminished
ability of the judiciary to intervene, leads inevitably to a very timid trade union
movement often unable to adequately protect the legitimate interests of the
workers. The law as it currently stands is loaded in favour of employers. It is
not a reflection of a genuine partnership between employers and workers.4

Approaches used to Neuter the Trade Unions in Malaysia

As mentioned above, the trade unions in Malaysia are weak as the legal and institutional
aspect of it seemingly favours the employers. Besides that, the power and influence that
multinational corporations (MNCs) together with their anti-union standpoint play a role
in restricting the growth of trade unions as employees are discouraged from joining any
3 It is well known that the MTUC could be registered only under the Societies
Act and the long range objective of the MTUC to eliminate multiplicity of
unions and held unions to group themselves into 14 National Industrial
Unions could not be realized because of this similarity provision.
4 Wu Min Aun, Jesse Prosperity at a Price: Regulation of Organised Labour in
Malaysia in Christoph Antons (ed), Law and Development in East and
Southeast Asia. (Routledge Curzon 2003)

union as employees are reluctant to open up and be direct to superiors which may be
regarded as rude and disrespectful here in Malaysia.5

Anantaraman6 also states that hostile employers may resort to unfair labour practices
when the unions try to gain recognition as per s.9(2) of the IRA 1967 from the employers
which may include threatening to dismiss an employee who is a union member or
retrenching the employee.7 Apart from that, s.9(3) of the IRA 1967 provides that the
employer or trade union of employer must within 21 days either accord recognition or
refuse recognition to which the grounds must be notified to the trade union of the
employee. This however does not always apply with some application for recognition
taking 3 to 5 years, if at all.8 Furthermore, the Immigration Department also strictly
prohibits migrant worker from joining trade unions which clearly violates Article 3(2) of
the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No.87.9
5 Naresh Kumar, Miguel Martinez and Raduan Che Rose, Workplace industrial
relations in a developing environment: barriers to renewal within unions in
Malaysia [2013] 51 (22-44) Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources (APJHR)
<http://ecomm.umk.edu.my/sites/default/cvonline/00755A/20130302001956/
APJHR%202013.pdf> accessed 9 August 2015
6 Venkatraman Anantaraman, Malaysian industrial relations: Law and
Practice (Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 1997)
7 This was also reported in The Star in 17 December 1996 under the headline
MTUC wants speedy recognition.
8 Nagiah Ramasamy, 'The Future and Challenges Of The Of The Trade Union
Movement in Malaysia ' (Union Executive CIMB Bank (UEC) First Area Committee
Conference, Swiss Garden Damai Laut, Pangkor, Malaysia 23-25 February
2008)<http://www.unioncimb.org.my/home/news/TheFutureoftheTUMovementinMsiaCIMBConferenceArticle.pdf> accessed 9 August 2015

9 Ibid

Therefore, the weak position of trade unions in Malaysia, the unfairness of law towards
them and the suffocating stance by the employers unions and the government
departments evidently inhibits the progress of trade unions and their inability to protect
the employees. Most Malaysian law do not comply with ILO Conventions despite efforts
from ILO and this is alarming. It is apparent that the Malaysian laws must be reformed
and stop being one-sided. Thus, drastic measures must be taken in order for trade unions
in Malaysia to flourish.