An overwhelming majority (72.33 per cent) of members of the Sabah Timber Employees Union (STIEU) at Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) in Sipitang, Malaysia, voted to form a union via a secret ballot election on 29 October 2018. SFI has a long history of obstructing its workers from forming a trade union on its premises, and had refused to allow workers to conduct the ballot on site or during work hours. The secret ballot was held on the premises of a nearby school, with workers voting during their lunch break.
This ballot victory comes after many attempts by SFI over previous years to prevent its workers from forming a union, using lengthy and expensive judicial review procedures. In October 2017 SFI’s appeal to the Kota Kinabalu Federal Court was dismissed; however, the Court’s failure to provide a written copy of the decision was further used to prevent the secret ballot process from proceeding until the new human resources minister, M Kula Segaran, intervened.
The successful ballot will enable the workers at Sipitang to begin collective bargaining.
