MTUC insists Senate Council president was informed over statement

Malaysian Trade Union Council (MTUC) insisted today that it had contacted Senate Council president Khairudin Abdul Samad before issuing a press statement on the outcome of their meeting on Monday.

MTUC secretary-general J Solomon (above) said a member of his media team had contacted Khairudin, a few hours after the meeting, to get his comments on its outcome.

"The representative told Khairudin that he would be writing a press release on the outcome of the meeting and sought his comments for the story," Solomon said in a statement.

He said the media representative had even sent links of all the stories published to Khairudin, but there was no request for clarification, until today's press conference.

Solomon was responding to Khairudin (below) who earlier today took MTUC to task for having allegedly misrepresented the outcome of their meeting surrounding the Labour Laws Reform Bill which is up for debate next week.

"It is baffling that Khairudin only decided to retract his comments more than 24 hours after the report was carried by the various portals and mainstream media.

"It must be emphasised that our media representative is well known to him and the role he plays in MTUC. We stand by our statement," said Solomon.

He said MTUC stands by its position to oppose the reforms and that Khairudin had promised to raise their concerns during the bill's debate next week.

At a press conference this morning, Khairudin claimed he was never contacted for quotes attributed to him in a MTUC press statement, which highlighted their efforts to lobby against the bill to amend provisions under the Industrial Relations Act 1967.

Khairudin was quoted saying that he shared some of MTUC's concerns and purportedly warned them that it would an uphill battle to get the bill reviewed.

National Senate Council deputy president Razali Ismail also said it was not good for MTUC to have created a perception that it has received support to vote against the bill.