KUCHING: The 11th Union of Telecoms Employees Sarawak (UTES) Triennial Delegates Conference has been officially launched by the President of Union Network International-Malaysian Liaison Council (UNI-MLC), Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal at Grand Continental Hotel here yesterday.
The two-day conference will be a platform for delegates from all over Sarawak to discuss the direction of the Union, motions and proposals to be submitted during a joint agreement with Telekom Malaysia Bernard, TM Sales and Service Sdn Bhd (TSSSB) and Government Integrated Telecommunications Network (GITN) in December this year.
“This is the time for delegates to contribute ideas and share their thoughts in regards to the right of employers and employees,” said Shafie.
He added that the employees also needed to adapt to the new e-commerce initiative during working environment.
“Be competent so as to meet the demand of your customers whereby, nowadays the use of technologies has become a major requirement in work skills,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the right of terminated employees, he responded that there were certain methods and options to cater to the issue if the company has a union.
“Firstly if they have a union, the union committee will discuss with the employer or management on why those people were terminated. Secondly, if there is any justification given by the management, the union will ask again whether they can rescale those who would be terminated.
“If the working environment is not suitable or the department will be closed, they can retrain these people to work at other departments within the same company.
“If the first and second methods do not work, we need to discuss with the management to find out if they want to terminate the employee, what is their concrete reason and they must show the evidence.
“Under the union, we are able to bring up this case to the Industrial Relations Department and Labour Department for further action. Unless these three methods are used and union is satisfied with the outcome, otherwise compassion will be considered.
“Meanwhile, for companies that have no union, they will have a big problem because there is no guidance for them to lodge a report as they only can report to Industrial Relations Department, and their complaint will be considered under Section 20.
“The company should not take for granted to simply terminate the employees. The management side needs to adopt the sharing and caring. If possible we should avoid these termination issues, and it will depend on the employers as well if they have the means to terminate those employees with reasonable compensations,” he explained.
