NUBE takes bank case to Singapore High Comm

NUBE wants Singapore government to intervene as two Singaporean directors of Hong Leong Bank failed to comply with the collective agreement that union members have the right to refuse a transfer on condition of 'hardship'.

PETALING JAYA: Around 50 National Union for Bank Employees (NUBE) members gathered this morning, to submit a memorandum to the Singapore High Commission, here, in protest against Hong Leong Bank’s decision to transfer 49 non-executive staff from all over country to three centralised locations.

A Singapore Embassy representative received and acknowledged the memorandum.

NUBE wants the Singapore government to intervene as the two Singaporean Hong Leong Bank (HLB) directors have failed to comply with the collective agreement between NUBE and the bank that state, ‘a bank staff who is a Union member has the right to refuse a transfer based on the condition of hardship’.

Hong Leong Bank recently implemented a nationwide downsizing exercise titled “Hubbing and Centralisation”, a process whereby Hire Purchase/Housing Loan Collection departments currently situated in various states throughout the country are centralised in a particular location.

In this case, the bank is centralising all its collection operations to Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru.

In this exercise, a total of 49 members (bank staff) majority of them Malay are affected and they are being transferred as follows:

Penang – four staff, transferred to Puchong

Kedah – 10 staff, transferred to Puchong and Penang

Kelantan – 10 staff, transferred to Puchong and Penang

Johor – two staff, transferred to Puchong

Perak – four staff, transferred to Puchong and Penang

Malacca – nine staff, transferred to Puchong and Johor

Pahang – five staff, transferred to Puchong and Petaling Jaya

Negeri Sembilan – five staff, transferred to Puchong

NUBE assistant general secretary A Karuna said the bank should be sensitive to their staff emotions instead of just transferring them without any consideration and should be moving technology to the people, not the other way round.

“You can easily move the jobs to the people in their original locations using scanners, faxes or other technology,” she said.

Karuna said that they had asked HLB management for justifications for the transfers so many times but the bank has refused to respond.

She said the employees were supposed to report for duty at their new transferred location of work on Nov 18 but as a sign of dissatisfaction at HLB’s refusal to listen to their problems, the affected staff did not do so.

“Most of the affected are women and have families to take care of, the management have not allowed them to continue to work.” she said.

“They just sit on the sofa’s (for the) whole day long. They are not allowed to use the bank’s toilet and the management have issued show cause letters and they will be sacked soon.

“We as a NUBE members have our rights and privileges. They can’t simply chuck us around as they wish.

Karuna lamented that they have approached numerous parties including the Malaysian government but nothing is favouring them.

“I hope at least the Singapore embassy will intervene and understand the emotion of the workers that have been loyal to the bank for a long time,” she said.

Picketing in Seremban

Late yesterday evening, NUBE branch chairman for Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor, Mohd Zaki Sheikh Ahmad picketed with staff in front of the HLB Seremban branch.

According to Mohd Zaki, the Industrial Relations Department (IRD) called NUBE for a conciliatory meeting in November 2013 whereby HLB agreed to review and maintain things as status quo until Dec 4, 2013.

He confirmed that HLB has refused to allow affected staff to enter the bank’s premise or sign the staff attendance register.

“Subsequently, staff at one branch were not allowed to enter as workers, sign the attendance register and they were not provided a work place,” said Mohd Zak

“The affected staff (have) worked with the bank for more than five years. Some of them for eight to 10 years. Around 60%t of them are female and 40% of them are male. Most are married.

“Can you imagine the situation, a wife has to leave her husband and children in Kedah and work in Puchong. Or a husband has to leave his wife and children in Kelantan and work in Penang?

“The living costs especially in Puchong is very high. Where are staff going to stay and it’s not easy for them to look for a new house. Can the worker afford to buy or rent a house in Puchong?

“NUBE (have been) engaged in discussions with the bank since March 2013 regarding this matter. However, the bank (has) failed to justify the ‘real need’ to carry out the Hubbing and Centralization, disrupting family lives and the livelihood of the 49 workers,” explained Mohd Zaki.