Charles Santiago, the former MP for Klang, drew from his positive experiences in Indonesia, where multiple trade unions in a factory increased efficiency.

“As a result of having two or three trade unions in the factory, competition was actually created between trade unions fighting for the best rights for the workers, including workers’ compensation, overtime, protection against discrimination and so on,” he told FMT.

Santiago said that the scarcity of unions in the country was one of the reasons wages had remained low until today.

“Only when you have more members in trade unions can they negotiate and demand for higher salaries. Otherwise, the employers will take it that they’re right (about the pay),” he said.

On Oct 10, the Dewan Rakyat passed an amendment to the Trade Unions Act 1959, which would allow the formation of multiple trade unions in any establishment, trade, occupation or industry.

However, the Coalition against Multiplicity of Unions has consistently expressed its opposition to the amendment, saying the multiplicity of unions “defeats the very concept of the unity of workers”.

On Wednesday, FMT reported an economist as saying that unions that are not united would be powerless when negotiating wages.

Zouhair Rosli, the socioeconomic director of the Social Protection Contributors Advisory Association Malaysia, said this would make it difficult for the government to achieve its goal of increasing wages.

Despite supporting the amendment, Santiago also encouraged trade unions to actively engage with MPs to lobby for change to improve workers’ rights.

“Unions came and lobbied with the MPs, for example, for some of the changes to the minimum wage. So these things are constantly ongoing. It’s constantly happening,” he said, adding that nothing should stop unions from doing so.

However, Santiago said it might be too late to stop the amendment to the law since the Senate was likely to pass it.