The National Union of Bank Employees (Nube) concurs with the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) - that a lower pay increment due to the downturn is an alarming phenomenon.

Whilst we concur with the MEF that the labour laws that were laid down in the 1950s are very archaic and that we instead must respond to the cycles of the economy, the entire workforce in this country is affected by the 2008 amendments made to the labour laws that are more skewed to the advantage of the employers than of the workers.

It is also alarming to note that out of 810,150 companies and 3,568,095 businesses registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, only 212 companies were surveyed by the MEF.

What could be the possible state of affairs concerning the wages of employees in the rest of the companies and businesses?

The emphasis on productivity-linked wages is mischievous as the real intent is to depress wages. The economy has grown by manifold over the years and yet wages are depressed.

The divide between the rich and the poor is widening and this gulf must be bridged. MEF rightly acknowledged that even out of the 212, only 58.4% paid increments to non-executives

whilst comparatively 52.6% of executives were marginally better off.

Today, we have over nine cases pending (two at the conciliation stage) over unfair performance appraisal systems that lack appropriate measurement, transparency and fairness.

Since employers today are behaving in such a tyrannical manner against their employees and society, this calls for a more organised work force - with trade unions playing a more prominent role.

In order to provide these workers the opportunity to be represented, organising workers into trade unions has to be heightened and Nube will be spearheading this in the banking industry.

We call upon the MEF to behave as a responsible corporate citizen and not take such a blinkered one-sided view. Such behaviour, advocating the depression of real wages, is against the interest of the larger Malaysian society.

MEF should re-educate itself and look to work for the betterment of Malaysian society as a whole.

The writer is general secretary, Nube.