MTUC secretary-general J Solomon also rejected the coalition’s claim that he and congress president Abdul Halim Mansor were “authoritarian leaders” holding MTUC to ransom.

Instead, he alleged that it was the likes of the coalition and Human Resources Minister M Kula Segaran who were attacking MTUC.

The coalition’s co-chairman N Gopal Kishnam had said on Saturday that actions taken by Solomon and Halim had not been decided upon by the MTUC general council.

Solomon said that since the announcement about labour law reforms, MTUC had been working tirelessly to ensure that laws beneficial to workers were enacted and that current laws restricting unions were repealed.

He said MTUC had negotiated with the International Labour Organisation to facilitate affiliates to take part in a number of seminars conducted by ILO specialists on the labour law reforms.

However, he said, Gopal Kishnam did not attend any of the seminars when all the MTUC affiliates were invited.

“Apart from that (he) did not have any interest to submit proposals for the labour law reforms when invitation circulars were sent to the affiliates,” he told FMT.

Solomon alleged that Gopal Kishnam had not objected when “all others” disagreed with the multiplicity of unions or with proposals on the Employment Act and the Trades Union Act.

He accused Gopal Kishman of not making an effort to meet MTUC for any clarification on labour law reforms or come up with proposals.

“It is ridiculous for this group to claim MTUC’s proposals as illegitimate,” he said, adding that the proposals were submitted “after having gone through a democratic process with the engagement of its affiliates”.

Solomon also took to task Gopal Kishnam’s claim that MTUC had not held general council meetings since 2016.

He said “numerous general council meetings” had been held since the current leadership took office on Dec 1, 2016.

He claimed that Gopal Krishnam, himself a former MTUC secretary-general, was being resentful at having lost at the congress elections in November 2016.

Solomon also alleged that Kula Segeran was “supporting” Gopal Kishnam and the coalition, adding that the minister had posted on his Facebook account articles released by Gopal Kishnam and the coalition.