KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), which went ahead with its picket to protest the amendments to the Employment Act 1955, says it is still open to discussions with the Human Resources Ministry.
Its president Mohd Khalid Atan said the protests, which took place at 18 locations nationwide, had sent a clear signal that worker groups were against the amendments.
“We are open to discussion, if there is still room for it,” he said during a gathering in Jalan Raja Laut here yesterday.
He said MTUC wanted the ministry to withdraw the recent amendments which revived the contract for labour system whereby workers would not be directly employed by employers, but through a third party.
The amendments would deprive workers of security of tenure, Socso and health benefits as well as the setting up unions, he added.
About 200 people held up banners and chanted “Withdraw the Amendments” and “Long Live Workers”.
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, Ipoh Barat DAP MP M. Kulasegaran and PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar also joined them.
In PETALING JAYA, MTUC secretary-general Abdul Halim Mansor has pledged to bring up the matter to international union organisations if the picket failed to change the Government's stance.
“We will speak up until our demands are heard. We will fight for our rights as workers and unionists,” he said.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar said the pickets could proceed as long as they did not cause traffic congestion and threaten public safe- ty
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/4/nation/9836484&sec=nation
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