3 WOMEN UNIONIST GET JUSTICE AFTER 13 YEARS OF
WAITING!!!
4
Nov 2011, Cheras Jaya
Today in history, Barack Obama won the US presidential election in
2008 and Ronald Reagan won on 4 Nov 1980. While those dates have no significant
to politics in Malaysia, yet here in
Malaysia 3 brave women unionist who were instrumental to establish the
all-women in-house union which resulted in them getting the sack by their
company in 1998 decided to celebrate their victory on this date in front of the
factory they worked for, Guppy Plastic Industries Sdn Bhd, located at Lot 15-19, Lorong 3A, Kawasan Perusahaan
Cheras Jaya, Jalan Balakong, 43200
Cheras.
The union which is led by a strong all
women team was registered officially on the 27th April 1998. Two months after
that, the entire Union Protem committee was suspended. Subsequently, three key
office bearers - Koyilvani (chairperson), Roshamiza (Secretary) and Kanniamah
(Treasurer) was sacked. This did not deter the young workers from continuing
the struggle. The Factory Owners, Guppy Plastic Industries refuse to give
recognition to the Union instead continued to harass the union members. The
State never protected the workers or their union. In spite of these harsh
realities, the workers did not lose their fighting spirit.
A small group of
friends and labour activists from JERIT and PSM gathered opposite the said
factory at around 11a.m with a banner: ‘Congratulations,
3 Heroes of Guppy Union – The High Court ruled the sacking of the union leaders
as unlawful ’. A press conference
was organised, after which the 3 workers gave away sweets to workers from the
factory during lunch time. Some workers coming out from the factory whispered
‘the boss is watching’ thus their reluctance to take the sweets. That is the
bitter truth about organising unions in Malaysia. There is hardly any
protection to workers who form unions.
The following handout prepared by Party
Socialist Malaysia (PSM) and endorsed by Marginalised People’s Network (JERIT)
was distributed during the victory celebration:
3 HEROES OPEN VICTORY CELEBRATION: ROSHAMIZA,
KOYILVANI & KANNIAMAH – FOUNDERS OF GUPPY PLASTIC INDUSTRIES WORKERS UNION
On 14 December
2009, the Kuala Lumpur High Court found that the sacking of 3 Guppy Workers
Union’s leadership is unfair, too harsh and wrong! This is a grand victory
because these workers faced numerous harassment and threat from their employer,
since they established the union in 1998.
The Guppy
Plastic Industries Union that was registered on 27 April 1998 is unique because
the entire leadership were women. Yet their management feared their strength
and capability to the extend of:
·
Sacking the union chairperson,
Comrade Koyilvani with 24 hours notice on 18 Jun 1998. The allegation was that
she carried out ‘anti-company’ activities!
·
Suspend the deputy chair,
Comrade Rahimah twice, on 4 Jun 1998 and 25 Aug 2001
·
Sacking the union secretary
with 24 hours notice on 18 Jun 1998, also alleged of anti-company activities
·
Sacking the union treasurer,
Comrade Kanniamah with 24 hours notice on 18 Jun 1998, alleged of anti-company
activities
·
Suspend assistant treasurer,
Comrade Visaletchumy twice, on 4 Jun 1998 and 25 Aug 2001
The company
accused them of weird and awful things like forcing the workers to join union
and misusing funds, even police were brought in once to arrest two of the
office bearers. The workers lodged more than 20 complaints to the National
Industrial Relation Office against the employer who continued to victimise the
union members. On the 24 Jun 1998, more than 100 workers signed a petition
opposing the sacking of their union leaders.
The support from
the union members was so great at the time that it was the sole motivation for
the leadership to pursue their struggle even while they were loosing their job.
They had several victories to be proud of, among others:
(i) 2 of the office bearers who were suspended won their case at the
Industrial Court on 5 Jan 2006. They were compensated but were forbid from
announcing the amount to the public!
(ii) The
Union filed a case against their management for union busting activities. On
the 4 Dec 2001, the Industrial Court president, Dato Umi Kalthum bin Abdul
Majid said “Whether you like it or not Mr. Goh (the
management), trade unions are here to stay, and you have to accept the
existence of the Kesatuan Pekerja pekerja Guppy Plastic Industries (Guppy
Plastic Industries Workers Union)”.
(iii) A
campaign was launched by the union against new employment rules and regulations
introduced by their employer, in year 2000. Many of the company rules were
against the 1955 Employment Act as well as the Federal Constitution. Among the
violations are related to right to union activities, work hours, termination
notice, retirement age discrimination between men and women workers. The matter
was brought to the attention of Industrial Relation Office, Labour Department
and the Human Resource Ministry.
(iv) On
6th. May 2008, the Industrial Court ordered the Guppy management to
give more space for the union to operate and was asked to remove the anti-union
clause from the company’s employment rules. The migrant workers are allowed to
be union members. The management agreed to improve it’s relationship with the
NEW Union Committee.
(v) In
Jun 2001, about 30 women workers were sacked within 24 hours for reason they
have reached ‘retirement age’, 50 when in fact at the time, most of them were
above 50 and number of them were even hired when they were 50! Only 9 women
filed a case at the Industrial Relations office for the unlawful sacking and
they won the case [No. 26 (14)/4-244/05, Award No. 1147]. On 18/4/2008, the
Industrial Court president, Rajandran Nayagan said “The Industrial Court will show the way and make a ruling which will be
useful to society “Do you know how a civilized society is gauged? It is
gauged by how it treats women in society.”
Unfortunately,
the case was lost in the High Court and it’s pending at the Appeals Court for
more than 1.5 years for a trial date!
Chronological Event of the Case won by the 3 Union
Leaders
- · On 27 April 1998, 7 brave women started a union to defend the rights of the workers at the factory that were facing many challenges, among others low wages.
- · On 4 Jun 1998, all 7 women were suspended on allegation they are going against the company when it was so obvious that they were suspended for initiating the union!
- · On 18 Jun 1998, 3 main office bearers in the union, Koyilvani (was working in Guppy since 4/7/1989), Roshamiza (since 12/4/1993) and Kanniamah (since 16/7/1991) were terminated immediately without any domestic inquiry.
- On 30/9/1998, the case was referred to the Industrial Court.
- Due to some reason, the case was delayed and the second trial only started since 26 July 2004. The Industrial Court Chairperson was Madam Soo Ai Lin. The unionist lost the case on 31 Mei 2006
- · Case was appealed at the High Court on 19 July 2006 and their lawyer was Edward Saw Keat Leong.
- · Trial at the High Court proceeded and the unionists won the case on 14 Dec 2009. The judge, Mohamad Ariff bin Md. Yusuf referred the case back to the Industrial Court to work out the compensation.
- · Even though they won but the management threatened them to accept a lower percentage of the total compensation and not to say a word about this victory to the public, failing which saying the company would appeal the case and the case would drag on much longer.
- · On 30 Oct 2011, the 3 unionist strongly felt that their termination was unlawful and since the High Court decision favoured them, the right thing to do is to announce the victory.
This case is very significant:
1. Because to say that
a worker terminated from his/her job could only get justice after 13 years and
even that is not confirmed when in fact the worker can only get maximum 2 years
retrenchment benefit.
2. Victimisation of
union leaders is so common and transparent, yet the issue is not given fair
attention.
3. These 3 ‘ordinary’
women has demonstrated to their company which bullies and threatens them that
they cannot be lured with money alone. They too have their dignity and pride.
Money is not everything and today they have come forward without fear to give a
clear message that the workers must be brave to expose their Employer who spent
thousands and thousands of Ringgit because he does not want a union in his
factory.
4. The current laws
does not protect Unionist.
Reported by
Letchimi
