While MTUC wants to engage with these stakeholders “in a just and fair manner”, he said, the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) under which the congress falls does not appear to be a suitable platform.

“By limiting the role of MTUC to one of consultation, NLAC has the tendency to push legislations that might not be in the interest of labour.

“MTUC faces difficulty playing a meaningful role in NLAC. There is no honest engagement of labour. Consultation means nothing for the advancement of labour rights,” he said in a statement.

MTUC’s role in labour matters was recently in the spotlight, with the congress accusing Human Resources Minister M Kula Segaran of tabling amendments to the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) without consulting the relevant stakeholders.

MTUC secretary-general J Solomon said Kula had unilaterally decided to submit proposed amendments to the IRA, Employment Act and Trades Union Act to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for approval, and that MTUC had been sidelined.

However, Kula maintained that his ministry had held nine NLAC meetings this year, as well as various technical committee meetings since January.

He also said he placed the “utmost importance” on his ministry’s tripartite consultations by conducting such meetings on a monthly basis.

But Ramasamy said the tripartite mechanism seemed “merely a euphemism to hide the unilateral nature of decision-making, with little or no input from labour or MTUC”.

He added that the changes to the IRA had brought only incremental benefits for workers.

“MTUC might be just a labour centre organised under societal registration without the benefits of a labour federation, but it is certainly the labour centre and principal representative of 15 million workers in the country,” he said.

“For unions to play an effective role in the country, there must be a recognition that some fundamental concerns of labour associated with freedom of association and voluntarism must be addressed.”