The National Union of Bank Employees' (NUBE) actions are not justified and reflect poorly on the present leadership whose legitimacy, I understand, is still disputed.

As one who had direct dealings with the NUBE leadership before as a bank representative in Malayan Commercial Banks Association (MCBA), I see the actions by the current leadership of NUBE as lacking finesse and professionalism.

They are misleading the public by making it appear as though they are fighting for their right which has been denied without just cause by their employer. This is far from the truth.

Collecting union dues from its members is union responsibility. The law says so. Employers who assist unions to collect the dues from their members through salary deductions or check-off as commonly known, do so voluntarily. Most like MCBA did so out of goodwill.

Goodwill between two parties is measured on the state of human relationships at any given time between the leadership of the parties. It follows that check-off can be denied or withdrawn when goodwill does not exist between the parties concerned.

MCBA had a bona fide reason to withdraw the check-off facility during the NUBE leadership crisis as to continue the facility would mean extending recognition to a disputing faction.

Having withdrawn the check-off at its discretion albeit with justifiable cause, it remains MCBA's discretion to restore it.

Assuming that J Solomon becomes the undisputed leader of NUBE, he must first earn the goodwill and respect of MCBA before he can plead — and I repeat, plead — for the check-off to be restored.

It takes finesse and professionalism in unionmanship as displayed by his predecessors who obtained the privilege from MCBA and not through crude demands.

A union that wishes to project its power through the strength of its members must do so on justifiable cause. Check-off is neither a justifiable cause nor a union's inherent right, has never been and will never be under the present legal framework.

Minister of Human Resources Dr Fong Chan Onn's recent call to the banks to restore check-off clearly reflects his ignorance of the principle resting behind the banks' stand.

It is high time the minister asked his director of industrial relations to direct NUBE to cease this childish lunchtime rackets in front of banks as the check-off facility cannot be coerced or demanded of employers, which is the very grain of the principle.