Women workers to benefit from new association

Women workers to benefit from new association

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

The proposed Malaysian Association of Working Women (MAWW)
should give the trade union movement, especially the Malaysian
Trades Union Congress (MTUC), some serious food for thought.

According to MAWW's pro tem president Silam Hassan, the new
organization was necessary because many of the issues affecting
women workers were not properly dealt with by the existing
unions.

This is just telling the trade unions that they have been
neglecting the rights and benefits of the female workers or at
least such issues have not been given prominence by the movement.

After so many years, perhaps the time has come for the women
workers to have their own body to highlight and champion their
problems and surely it has its work all cut out.

With women forming almost half the workforce, it is only
logical that there is an association especially as almost all the
present trade unions are male-dominated.

However, Silam is quick to point out that MAWW is an
association and not a trade union in order to attract women
employees from all levels and this will make it numerically
stronger to lobby for its cause.

So its membership will be open to all women workers
irrespective of their positions and this should be welcomed by
female executives who find themselves mostly in limbo as there is
no organization to represent them.

They cannot be union members because as executives they are
not allowed to join a trade union and so if they should be given
unfair treatment, such as being paid a lower salary than their
male colleagues or not being promoted because of their sex, there
is no one to help them.

With the proposed association, such executives can at least
approach MAWW to make representations on their behalf to their
employers or to the relevant ministry or department dealing with
such cases.

If MAWW should remain neutral and non-political, then it
should be able to attract members in droves and can be an
organization to be reckoned with in championing the rights of the
female workers.

Two of the outstanding issues concerning women workers are
maternity leave and child-care support and those who take leave
for this purpose may be blacklisted by their employers.

Some of them will lose out on wages and seniority if they
should take more than the stipulated two-month maternity leave
and this is something that the new association would like to put
right.

If properly organized and with the right leadership, MAWW can
be a powerful lobby to get both employers in the public and
private sector to provide more facilities to encourage married
female workers to remain in the workforce.

Otherwise many of them will just leave to look after their
children because of the lack of support by the employers and the
difficulty in getting good maids to care for their loved ones.

The new organization should get the full support of both the
Ministry of Women and Family Development and the Ministry of
National Unity and Social Development, which are responsible for
looking after the welfare of women in general.