PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is facing controversy just a day before its triennial delegates conference, which is set to be attended by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
A general council member, A Sivananthan, has accused office bearers of contravening the organisation’s constitution. He also says the conference would be “convening illegally”.
In a statement, Sivananthan claimed that the conference, scheduled for tomorrow and on Sunday, should only be held between October and December under MTUC’s constitution.
He said the dates, location and agenda of the event had not been decided by the general council.
“The delegates are also being deprived of MTUC’s triennial report and audited statements of accounts for 2020, 2021 and 2022,” he said in a statement.
Sivananthan also alleged that MTUC secretary-general Kamarul Baharin Mansor had failed to send the agenda to the affiliates 14 days before the conference.
“Under the standing orders of the TDC, the secretary-general should present the general council’s report, which should be given precedence over all other business of the conference.
“But no such report was presented to the council prior to the TDC. The previous term’s report was also not presented as directed by the Registrar of Societies,” he said.
FMT has contacted Kamarul for comment.
Sivananthan called on the RoS to stop condoning the alleged constitutional violations by the MTUC leadership.
In terms of financial matters in MTUC, he said, the organisation’s financial secretary did not present account statements at every quarter proceeding of the general council meeting.
He further claimed that the general council did not receive any annual audited statement of accounts for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 financial years, adding that these were also not presented to the unions to be debated.
He said the prime minister’s attendance was also not tabled at any of the general council meetings.
“It is our opinion that the TDC must be deferred, otherwise Ismail will not only be attending an illegal conference, but he will also be seen as condoning the violations of MTUC’s constitution by its current leadership,” he said.