MTUC president Abdul Halim Mansor said this after a meeting this morning with Selangor RoS director Nurul Azhar Husin.
Halim said MTUC can still carry out its functions as a union body, although they are not allowed to hold any general council meetings.
“We hope RoS will make a decision as soon as possible to restore MTUC’s status.
“This will allow this national workers’ centre to continue carrying out its responsibility without any obstruction,” he said at a press conference here today.
RoS raised several issues during the meeting, related to the body’s failure to hold its general council meetings and its finances.
Halim clarified that MTUC had held 10 general council meetings between May 2017 and December 2018, until there was a court case involving secretary-general J Solomon on the eligibility of certain members on the general council.
After the case was resolved outside court, a working committee meeting was called on Dec 12 where they decided to call for a general council meeting.
“With the case resolved, we had planned to hold the general council meeting on Dec 29 to prepare for MTUC’s representatives’ conference. But after that, we received a letter on our temporary suspension,” he said.
He added that the next meeting can only be held in March or April next year at the earliest, as it would take 12 weeks to plan for the meeting due to the procedures.
He also said MTUC could not pay any compensation or settle its bills as their current financial secretary has been “missing in action” since November after submitting his resignation.
A replacement for the financial secretary was supposed to be chosen after the general council meeting.
“We’re still receiving workers’ compensation settlements from courts. This money is safe. We just ask for some time so that RoS allows us to hold the meeting and we can appoint a new finance secretary.
“RoS also asked us to amend our old constitution to allow a temporary finance secretary to be appointed should the need arise.”
Halim said there was “no doubt” that MTUC’s statements of accounts have always been audited.
Last week, RoS had suspended the MTUC to carry out investigations after it received complaints on the management of the union.
The suspension came amid a war of words between MTUC and the human resources ministry over the Labour Laws Reform (LLR) Bill, which the union said was being bulldozed through without consultation with stakeholders.