Kuala Lampur, Nov. 3 -- The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) has called Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran's labour law amendment akin to "state sponsored" union busting.

In a press statement today, its secretary-general J. Solomon said that the major amendments to the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) tabled last month were aimed at destroying the solidarity of the labour movement and denying workers effective union representation in negotiating Collective Agreements (CA) with employers.

"This particular set of amendments introduced by the minister will greatly harm the solidarity of trade unions and weaken the bargaining power of workers and unions.

"The minister took this measure despite telling the MTUC president and myself ...