GENEVA, 8 June 2025:
The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has slammed Human Resources Minister Steven Sim’s claim of a “leadership vacuum” at the union body for being the reason to exclude it from the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva – saying he “has no business” deciding the merit of workers’ delegates picked to attend the meeting.
“The minister’s duty is merely to deposit the names of the workers’ delegates submitted by MTUC,” J. Solomon, chairman of the joint special committee governing the MTUC, said in a statement from Geneva, where the 113th session of the ILC is in progress. “The Minister has no business to decide on the MTUC leadership nor interfere in the affairs and administration of MTUC.”
The spectacle caused by the Human Resources Ministry’s decision to exclude the MTUC, which essentially represents all of Malaysia’s workers, from the country’s official delegation to the ILC has been a running sideshow to the June 3-12 meeting in Geneva.
The International Labour Organisation, which presides over the ILC, censured the Malaysian government over the exclusion and other alleged transgressions of universally-respected labour procedures. Solomon said earlier this week the debacle in Geneva has caused Malaysia “extreme embarrassment”, placing it in the ranks of “backward countries like Myanmar”.
Malaysia has been an ILO member since independence in 1957 and each year, a tripartite delegation representing the Human Resources Ministry, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) and MTUC attended the ILC — the largest gathering of governments, employers and their workers.
In 2025, for the first time ever, the MTUC was excluded while the names of 40 ministry representatives and eight from the MEF were submitted as official delegates. The MTUC still managed to make it to the Geneva meeting as a non-governmental organisation accredited by the International Trade Union Confederation.
The MTUC says it submitted its list of delegates to the Human Resources Ministry on 9 May 2025, three days ahead of deadline set for the ILC. It says Sim’s office withheld forwarding the 14 workers’ representatives names to the ILO, despite repeated reminders.
Sim, in a statement issued 7 June 2025, said the MTUC’s lack of a legitimate leadership was what led to its inclusion from the meeting, citing a Kuala Lumpur Court of Appeal directive that a re-election of MTUC office bearers be held by 10 August 2025. With the ILC occurring ahead of the re-election deadline set by the court, the ministry deemed the MTUC as being in a “leadership vacuum”, he said.
To the minister’s understanding, the Joint Special Committee at MTUC was established solely to conduct its re-election and did not possess the mandate to make policy decisions or nominate individuals for international forums. Nominations to the ILC, thus, fell outside the committee’s legal jurisdiction as outlined by the Court of Appeal directive, Sim said.
The minister added that the MTUC’s seat at the 113th ILC had also been contested by several MTUC affiliate members.
Solomon vehemently rejected the explanations laid out by Sim. “The minister has no right to mislead the public by stating that MTUC does not have a leadership,” Solomon said, adding that the Joint Special Committee he chaired was the undisputed governing body of the MTUC.
“If indeed, the minister was sincere in wanting to ensure that the workers are to be represented at the ILC, the minister would have contacted and discussed with (the) Joint Special Committee as soon as (he) received the invitation from the ILO. The minister did not do so then, but is giving excuses now.”
He also said the re-election of MTUC office bearers, scheduled for 2-3 August 2025, was “already in motion and progressing well”.
Added Solomon: “The entire conduct of the Minister was to avoid a report on the analysis of Malaysian labour laws pointing out anti-union discrimination and other failures — that are in violation of ILO Convention 98 — from being discussed at the ILC.”
The Geneva episode culminates an 18-month running battle between the union movement of Malaysia and Sim, who’s been accused of multiple labour transgressions and union-busting tactics since taking office in December 2023.
The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), also led by Solomon, has repeatedly called out Sim for alleged collusion with the banks in the country to undermine banking workers whom he is mandated to protect. NUBE has proposed a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate Sim and his ministry officials for breaches that include disobeying the labour initiatives directed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s office.