KUALA LUMPUR: The MTUC has urged employers to refrain from using the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare and the Iraq War to exploit workers.
Its president Zainal Rampak, referring to two electronics companies in Kuantan and Kulim which allegedly reduced their workers’ wages after citing the SARS scare as an excuse said:
“The MTUC expresses its strong objections to this unethical and inhuman practice which, if left unchecked, will greatly erode industrial harmony in the country.
“These unscrupulous employers have breached our labour laws, particularly Section 63 the Employment Act as they have failed to notify the Labour Department, their workers, or their unions, as regards any change in their business operations or term and conditions of employment,” he said yesterday.
Zainal, who noted that the firms’ action was in violation of the Code of Conduct for Industrial Harmony, added:
“We see this practice of arbitrarily reducing workers’ wages as an act of exploitation, with some employers trying to catch fish in troubled waters and they are actually undermining industrial harmony by eroding their worker’s livelihoods.”
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