KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is the oldest organisation representing Malaysian workers and among its roles today is to promote equality, improve workers’ living standards, and create a better and safer working environment for its approximately 500,000 members.
In conjunction with Labour Day today, A. Balasubramaniam who has served MTUC for 40 years and is now its vice-president, shares his journey in campaigning for various workers’ issues, including the implementation of a minimum wage, raising the retirement age from 55 to 60, the five-day work week, and the Occupational Health Safety Act 1994.
According to Balasubramaniam, he has attended several workshops, seminars, courses, and meetings organised by international unions including the International Labour Conference in Geneva.
“In June 1980, when I was a tally clerk in one of the ancillary companies which operated in the port area, I joined a workers’ union representing tally clerks called the Union of Employees in Port Ancillary Services Suppliers (Unepass), which is an affiliate of MTUC.
“I raised several issues with the union leadership regularly and seeing this, some of the leaders encouraged me to contest in the union election as an office-bearer.
“I stood to contest as a member of the Unepass executive committee (exco) in September 1982 and won to become one of the six exco members,” said Balasubramaniam, now aged 63.
In view of his young age at that time, the leadership also encouraged Balasubramaniam to attend a MTUC youth committee meeting where he was identified as a potential candidate to actively participate and who was capable of contributing more.
He was an active member of the MTUC exco youth committee from 1982 to 1990, and later became its secretary at its Youth Convention in 1990 before he won the youth committee chairman post unopposed in 1992 and by virtue of this, he became an MTUC vice-president.
Sharing further, he said he led a delegation of 65 union youth leaders to participate in the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) youth rally held in Seoul in 1994.
The Port Klang-born activist was later elected as the chairman of the youth committee of the ICFTU and had the privilege of chairing the world meeting.
“A motion was proposed in that meeting to cap the age limit for youth representation either at the age of 35 or 40, the majority voted in favour of 35 and it remains in ICTFU as the age limit to date,” he added.
Later, Balasubramaniam became a general council member from 1994 to 2004 representing Unepass, MTUC vice-president in 2004, and MTUC deputy secretary-general in 2016 before he was re-elected as MTUC vice-president in 2022.
Besides MTUC, he also served in the National Wage Consultative Council as a workers’ representative from 2013 to 2020 and was a board member of Malaysian Productivity Corp for 12 years.
Balasubramaniam had also been active in the industrial court representing workers for various cases such as dismissals, trade disputes, collective agreement, retrenchment, and those involving migrant workers for almost 20 years.
In conjunction with Labour Day, Balasubramaniam called on workers to join forces to strengthen trade unions in the country. – Bernama, May 1, 2023
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