The run-up to the Collective Agreement, or CA, that’s negotiated every three years between the Malayan Commercial Banks Association (MCBA) and the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) marks one of the most ludicrous times for the union.
It’s a time when the banks will be looking for every loophole and crafty way of bending the rule book on the CA.
The banks are treating the CA as a laughing matter. The livelihoods of the 15,000 workers supporting them have also become a joke to them. And the Human Resources Minister is enabling them to turn the whole thing into a comedy.
The minister had the chance to set the course right for both the banks and the union when an agreement over the Festival Aid, or FA, came into dispute a year ago.
The FA was inked by the two sides in 2023, allowing bank workers an extra month’s pay that year for any one of the country’s four main festivals: Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali or Christmas.
When 2024 came around, the MCBA refused to continue with the bonus, saying the FA had expired by then. It pointed to a clause in the 2023 agreement that said “both parties agree that this payment may be reviewed in the following year”.
NUBE argued that a clause was inserted for negotiating the size of the bonus, not the FA agreement itself.
When there’s a dispute between NUBE and the MCBA, a “joint standing committee” has to be formed to resolve the matter. But the MCBA bypassed that procedure with the FA, asking the director-general of the Industrial Relations Department to mediate on the matter, without informing NUBE.
Taken aback at first, the union eventually went along with the path taken by the banks. NUBE sat with MCBA for two reconciliation sessions mediated by the industrial relations DG, who urged for more talks when the two sides remained at a deadlock.
However, after the two reconciliation sessions, more surprises unfolded for NUBE. The HR Minister showed up at MCBA’s office to take up the FA matter — again without the union’s prior knowledge. Discussing with just the banks, the minister declared a half-month bonus for 95% of NUBE’s 15,000 members and a full month for the balance 5%. The bonuses would be one-off, news reports cited him as saying.
When the banks began paying out the modified festive bonuses, NUBE lodged a police report against the minister for abusing his powers over the matter and not consulting the union.
As NUBE was trying to work out the dates for the two sides to commence talks on the CA, it also asked that the FA for 2024 be paid out a month ahead of the Chinese New Year that fell on February 10 that year.
That’s when the union learnt what MCBA had in mind: The FA was just for 2023; a one-off thing.
NUBE, of course, protested, resulting in the case being brought before the Industrial Court.
Banks Try to Muzzle NUBE After Reneging on Festival Aid
As for the CA itself, MCBA demanded that NUBE stop its protest against the banks on the Festival Aid, for talks on the Collective Agreement to begin. This is despite knowing that the two were separate issues.
NUBE’s stance on the CA was that it was a separate matter from the FA. NUBE’s position was also that its members had a right to publicly air all grievances affecting them.
MCBA promptly referred the CA to the industrial relations department, just as it had done with the FA. When the director-general of the department wrote to NUBE, asking whether reconciliation talks should begin in the CA, the union replied that negotiations had not even commenced on the Collective Agreement for any attempt at reconciliation by the department.
What the banks want is for the court to nullify the entire Festival Aid agreement, not just dispute our interpretation of it.
While the Festival Aid is independent of the Collective Agreement, they are applying the same non-negotiation tactic to the current CA round.
What they’ve effectively done is conflate two separate issues into one, creating the impression they cannot move forth on either matter, without the court’s intervention.
They’ve escalated the Collective Agreement to the court without even opening negotiations with us. My question is: What is there to dispute when we haven’t even started talking?
Before the director-general of industrial relations could respond to our reply on the CA, the court wrote to us, saying the matter had already been referred to them. This is unprecedented.
The current CA round is the 20th since the country’s banks and its unionised workers began agreeing once every three years on wages and other working conditions.
NUBE’s records show the negotiation process has never been smooth, regardless of the state of relations between the union’s officials and executives in the HR units and C-suites of banks. While the mood may be particularly hostile now, relations were more amicable during the better part of the last decade.
When the two sides met on the first day of the CA hearing in court, NUBE requested information on all benefits of the senior managers at the banks, as well as the perks of the CEOs there. MCBA’s lawyers opposed the “discovery application” by the union, and the court asked NUBE to justify its request — meaning more time was required before the case properly began.
By landing the CA in court, MCBA is creating a side process that delays making reparations to the ever-rising cost of living faced by our members when there’s a mutually and lawfully agreed system in place for doing that; a negotiation that takes place every three years.
As it is, we are more than one year behind in what would have been the start of negotiations. Is this what MCBA wants?
Long periods of suffering for its workers? And why did the minister race this through the system without adhering to the reconciliation process that is provided under the law.”
Instead of negotiators from the unions and banks doing their work around a table, lawyers from both sides will now present the proposals, with the Industrial Court chairman acting as arbitrator.
Even if the Industrial Court rules in our favour, the banks could protest to the High Court. We could do the same if the decision is not in our favour and the matter could go higher, to the Court of Appeal and, ultimately, the Federal Court.
NUBE is, however, optimistic that wisdom will triumph in the end, not might. Case in point: The last time the CA went before the Industrial Court was some 15 years ago when it was eventually settled out of court.
The article above is based on a statement written by NUBE General Secretary J Solomon as posted under the same title at https://www.nube.org.my/ca_story.
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