Malaysia’s Employment Act guarantees workers’ right to form and join trade union regardless content of a contract (article 8) and right to deduct union dues monthly (article 24).
On the other hand, Industrial Relations Act protects workers’ right to form and join trade union and stresses that employers cannot interfere such rights. Union members have also right to take leave to join union activities.
Employment Act 1955
Contracts of service not to restrict rights of employees to join, participate in or organize trade unions
8. Nothing in any contract of service shall in any manner restrict the right of any employee who is a party to such contract—
(a) to join a registered trade union;
(b) to participate in the activities of a registered trade union, whether as an officer of such union or otherwise; or
(c) to associate with any other persons for the purpose of organizing a trade union in accordance with the Trade Unions Act 1959 [Act 262].
Lawful deductions
24.(3) The following deductions shall only be made at the request in
writing of the employee—
(a) deductions in respect of the payments to a registered trade union or co-operative thrift and loan society of any sum of money due to the trade union or society by the employee on account of entrance fees, subscriptions, instalments and interest on loans, or other dues; and
Industrial Relations Act 1967
Rights of workmen and employers
4(1) No person shall interfere with, restrain or coerce a workman or an employer in the exercise of his rights to form and assist in the formation of and join a trade union and to participate in its lawful activities.
(2) No trade union of workmen and no trade union of employers shall interfere with each other in the establishment, functioning or administration of that trade union.
(3) No employer or trade union of employers and no person acting on behalf of such employer or such trade union shall support any trade union of workmen by financial or other means, with the object of placing it under the control or influence of such employer or such trade union of employers.
Prohibition on employers and their trade unions in respect of certain acts
5(1) No employer or trade union of employers, and no person acting on behalf of an employer or such trade union shall—
(a) impose any condition in a contract of employment seeking to restrain the right of a person who is a party to the contract to join a trade union, or to continue his membership in a trade union;
(b) refuse to employ any person on the ground that he is or is not a member or an officer of a trade union;
(c) discriminate against any person in regard to employment, promotion, any condition of employment or working conditions on the ground that he is or is not a member or officer of a trade union;
(d) dismiss or threaten to dismiss a workman, injure or threaten to injure him in his employment or alter or threaten to alter his position to his prejudice by reason that the workman—
(i) is or proposes to become, or seeks to persuade any other person to become, a member or officer of a trade union; or
(ii) participates in the promotion, formation or activities of a trade union; or
(e) induce a person to refrain from becoming or to cease to be a member or officer of a trade union by conferring or offering to confer any advantage on or by procuring or offering to procure any advantage for any person.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not be deemed to preclude an employer from—
(a) refusing to employ a person for proper cause, or not promoting a workman for proper cause, or suspending, transferring, laying-off or discharging a workman for proper cause;
(b) requiring at any time that a person who is or has been appointed or promoted to a managerial, an executive or a security position shall cease to be or not become a member or officer of a trade union catering for workmen other than those in a managerial, an executive or a security position; or
(c) requiring that any workman employed in confidential capacity in matters relating to staff relations shall cease to be or not become a member or officer of a trade union.
Leave on trade union business
6. A workman intending to carry out his duties or to exercise his rights as an officer of a trade union shall apply in writing to his employer for leave of absence stating the duration of and the purposes for which such leave is applied for and the employer shall grant the application for leave if the duration of the leave applied for is for a period that is no longer than what is reasonably required for the purposes stated in the application:
Provided that a workman shall not be entitled to leave with pay for the duration of his absence if the purposes for which he is absent from work are not to represent the members of his trade union in relation to industrial matters concerning his employer.