PETALING JAYA,Feb 9: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has advised workers in the courier service sector to unionise to ensure a better working environment for them.
Its secretary-general, Kamarul Baharin Mansor, said joining a union would help workers obtain better benefits, adding that MTUC was willing to help in setting up one.
Kamarul also said the recent incident involving employees of delivery firm J&T Express were signs of underlying issues in the sector as well as others, like cleaning and food delivery, where workers are paid low wages and are from the B40.
“Companies in this industry will usually pay their employees minimum wage without other benefits. Workers are forced to work overtime in order to get higher pay,” he said in a statement.
“MTUC has raised the issue in this sector to the human resources minister. MTUC believes that this sector has other issues that need to be given attention. Issues such as the absence of service contracts, annual salary increments and late payment of salaries, among others.”
He said MTUC has yet to receive a written complaint from J&T Express workers, and the Department of Labour is probing the issue.
J&T Express has issued an apology after complaints about protesting workers tossing parcels around at a hub in Ipoh, and other complaints about food and drinks being stolen from customers’ parcels.
The company promised to make restitution and said the issue occurred because certain workers were not clear about a bonus payment scheme, causing “some employees to make collective disturbances, and posting the videos to social media”.
It said the incidents were “indeed a fault in our management” and were the result of temporary workers being hired to handle the increased volume of parcels and who were “only provided simple training”.
