The current government set a goal of transforming the country to a high income country by 2020 and also improve the skills and knowledge of workers to enhance productivity and competitiveness. So, the government has taken a few step to move ahead with the national goal, which include labour law amendment and the minimum wage fixing mechanism. Trade unions are quite concerned with the step taken by the government because the government intends to make the labour market more flexible by introducing the unemployment insurance scheme, amending the existing labour laws (IR Act, TU Act and Employment) in favour of the interest of employers and investors and setting up the minimum wage by all small segments of sector.

The workshop is to review the three Acts, such as the Employment Act, the Industrial Relations Act and the Trade Union Act, with the participating union leaders representing different sectors whether regulations undermine labour rights and trade union rights. It intends to summarise the MTUC stand on those regulations, undermining labour rights and trade union rights and develop a MTUC position which would be served as a policy paper for forthcoming tripartite discussions on the labour law amendment.

Objectives:

• To discuss the particular regulations of existing labour laws (IR Act, TU Act, and Employment Act), undermining labour rights and trade union rights
• To develop a MTUC position paper on labour law amendment with the inputs from the participants
• To achieve DWCP Outcome MYS802

Date and venue

16-18 March 2011 at Hotel Seri Malaysia, Pahang, Malaysia

Participants

43 participants from some 20 selected unions representing different industries.

For more information, please contact

Mr Pong-Sul Ahn
Senior Specialist in Workers’ Activities
ILO DWT-Bangkok
Email