Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144) - Malaysia (Ratification: 2002)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its 2007 direct request, which read as follows:

1. Articles 1 and 3, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Participation of representative organizations enjoying the right of freedom of association. The Committee notes the information provided in the Government’s report in October 2006. The Government indicates that the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and the Malayan Agricultural Producers’ Association (MAPA), as employer representatives, and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) and the Congress of Employees in the Public and Civil Service (CUEPACS), as worker representatives, participate in the activities of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC). The Government adds that the representatives of employers and workers are freely chosen by their representative organizations. The Committee would appreciate receiving further details on the manner in which the representative organizations enjoy the right of freedom of association, as required for participation in tripartite consultations under the terms of the Convention.

2. Article 2. Consultation procedures. The Committee notes that the NLAC is a body in which the members can provide advice and recommendations to the Minister on labour issues. There is no limit to the issues that can be discussed at its meetings. The Committee invites the Government to specify in its next report the manner in which the NLAC is involved in the consultations required by the Convention. In this respect, the Committee recalls that consultation procedures must be effective, that is they must provide employers’ and workers’ organizations with an opportunity to express their views usefully on all the matters covered by the Convention.

3. Article 4, paragraph 2. Training of participants. The Committee notes that the Labour Policy Division under the Ministry of Human Resources is responsible for the NLAC secretariat. It asks the Government to describe in its next report arrangements made for the financing of any necessary training of participants in the consultative procedures.

4. Article 5, paragraph 1. Tripartite consultations required by the Convention. The Government indicates in its report that two meetings were held in 2005. The issues discussed during the meetings related to current labour issues, such as training, safety and health, social security, labour dispute settlement, general economic and social policy, reform of labour legislation, productivity enhancement, etc. The Committee notes that these activities do not directly relate to the tripartite consultations on international labour standards covered by the Convention. It therefore asks the Government to provide particulars of the consultations held on each of the matters referred to below, including information on the nature of any reports or recommendations made as a result of such consultations. The Committee recalls that certain of the matters covered (replies to questionnaires, submissions to parliament, report to be made to the ILO) imply an annual consultation, while others (re-examination of unratified Conventions and Recommendations, proposals for the denunciation of ratified Conventions) involve less frequent examination.

(a)    Items on the agenda of the Conference. Under the terms of this provision, the Government is bound to consult the representative organizations of employers and workers before finalizing the text of its replies to ILO questionnaires.

(b)    Submission to Parliament of the instruments adopted by the Conference. On this matter, the Convention goes beyond the obligation set out in article 19 of the ILO Constitution by calling upon the Government to consult the representative organizations before finalizing the proposals to be made to Parliament in relation to the obligation to submit the instruments adopted by the Conference.

(c)    Re-examination of unratified Conventions and of Recommendations. Tripartite consultations on this subject are intended to promote the implementation of international labour standards by enabling the Government to envisage, in the light of changes in national law and practice, measures which could be taken with a view to facilitating the ratification of a Convention or the application of a Recommendation to which it was not possible to give effect at the time of their submission.

(d)    Reports on ratified Conventions. This provision goes beyond the obligation set out in article 23, paragraph 2, of the ILO Constitution to communicate reports; it consists of undertaking consultations on the problems which may arise in the reports due under article 22 of the ILO Constitution on the application of ratified Conventions; in general, these consultations concern the contents of replies to the comments of the supervisory bodies.

(e)    Proposals for the denunciation of ratified Conventions. Under the terms of this provision, the Government is bound to consult the representative organizations whenever it envisages denouncing a ratified Convention.

5. Report on the working of the consultation procedures. The Government states that there is no annual report on the working of the consultation procedures. The Committee recalls that, in accordance with Article 6, if no annual reports are issued, the Government is invited to provide particulars of the consultations that have taken place with the representative organizations on the working of the procedures provided for in the Convention. It therefore asks the Government to provide particulars in its next report on the consultations that have taken place on this issue and their outcome.