2015 ITUC Global Rights Index - Malaysia

2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 5

Sabah Forest Industries prevents unionisation:

Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) has been using numerous tactics to prevent the formation of an independent union, the Sabah Timber Employees Union (STIEU). Workers have been struggling for trade union recognition since the early 2000s. The company publicly declared that it was committed to not opposing the formation of a union and that it was willing to facilitate this process. However, in reality it continues to deny workers the right to freedom of association. The Industrial Relations Department ordered SFI to submit the list of the employees eligible to vote in union elections by 21 August 2014. SFI is still delaying the submission of the list arguing the union must prove its competency first.

Backlog of cases:

A serious backlog of cases is building up at the Industrial Courts in Penang and Kuala Lumpur after the contracts of four senior Industrial Court chairmen were not renewed. This is not the first time the Court has been left vacant, but the problem is more acute now because the contracts of all four expired around the same time in August 2014.

Union busting tactics in the electronics sector:

On 1-2 October 2014, workers in Malaysia voted for union representation by the Electronic Industry Employees Union (EIEU) at electronics manufacturer Infineon Technologies, despite strong pressure and union busting tactics by management. Workers at the Kulim-based plant in northwest Malaysia initially asked the company management for recognition of their union in April 2014. However, Infineon rejected the union's demands and refused to enter a constructive dialogue with workers. EIEU was subsequently forced to pursue a long bureaucratic recognition procedure, while the company tried to destroy the workers' efforts at organising. In a bid to prevent union presence, the company tried to claim the factory was not producing electronic components. Eventually, Infineon agreed to a secret ballot of the entire workforce. In the run-up to the vote, the company regularly provided negative briefings against EIEU and threatened workers. Nonetheless, more than half of the workers voted in favour of having the union at the plant.

Railway workers dismissed for picketing:

A total of 97 leaders and activists of the Railwaymen's Union of Malaya (RUM) were dismissed by KTMB (Malayan Railways Ltd) for taking part in a picket on 9 May 2014 over safety concerns arising from the use of old locomotives. Both the RUM president, Abdul Razak Md Hasan, and deputy president, R. Subramanian, were among those dismissed. 88 KTMB members were issued with show cause notices (which require them to make a court appearance to explain why legal action should not be taken against them). In November it was reported that the sacked workers would be reinstated, further to lobbying by the Malaysian Trade Union Congress.

The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting fundamental rights under threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.