Twelve unionised staff representatives from 10 major local and foreign banks in Kuala Lumpur are baying for the blood of the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) Kuala Lumpur branch committee.

Acting for about 7,000 to 9,000 members of the KL branch, they want the committee to assume responsibility and account in detail for the Dec 29 annual dinner fiasco which resulted in a deficit of more than RM97,000.

The representatives from Maybank, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, Overseas Chinese Banking Corp, Standard Chartered, Citibank, Bumiputera-Commerce, Bank Islam, Public Bank and Arab-Malaysian are vehemently disputing the letter and explanation offered by the KL branch.

In a hard-hitting rebuttal, they told malaysiakini when met today that the majority of the KL branch members are unaware of both the letter by secretary A Prathiba Raj offering an explanation, and an earlier circular on the controversial annual dinner.

"They were not widely circulated and only certain members received them. That is one of the reasons why the ticket sales for the annual dinner were not encouraging.

"Of course, the main reason is the members' total loss of confidence in the branch leadership," said a representative from Citibank.

'Drifting away'

Yesterday, malaysiakini carried the explanation contained in a letter dated Feb 7, a day after the national NUBE exco rejected a proposal to probe into the RM97,000 losses resulting from the lavish dinner at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre.

Many branch members believe the committee issued the letter as an easy way out despite promising to meet members to explain the Dec 29 dinner, which cost more than RM120,000 inclusive of an eight-course dinner and expensive entertainment.

Prathiba Raj was quoted on Feb 7 as saying the committee will meet members soon, but instead issued a letter after the national exco rejected (14-10) a proposal to probe into the dinner controversy and related discrepancies.

In refuting the committee's claim that the dinner was organised to unite members who were "drifting away of late", a representative from Public Bank said members were actually drifting away from the KL branch leadership and not the union.

He said putting the blame for disunity on the 10 percent levy issue was also baseless and "a lame excuse because about 90 percent of the 29,000 members agreed to pay" when the respective branch committees went around canvassing for support.

"The branch leaders have clearly failed to perform their duties. We members are united, it is the leadership which is fragile.

"In fact, during a meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre on Dec 16, 2000, Prathiba Raj practically begged the attending 7,000 members to pay the levy 'in order for the union to survive'," said the representative.

The NUBE KL branch has a total of 14,000 members.

Taking advantage

A representative from HSBC pointed out that it was quite odd for the KL branch committee to ask members for the levy, implemented early last year, given the approval of a RM100,000 budget at the triennial general meeting in April 1999.

"So, to lose RM97,000 when they claim the NUBE is in the red is totally unbecoming of a union leader. In fact, they worked against members' interest by charging RM680 for a dinner table when the hotel had offered it at RM670," said this representative.

On another claim that banks were taking advantage of the NUBE's internal problems, a representative from OCBC said the branch leaders, including Prathiba Raj and branch chairperson Toh Seng Hock, should take the full blame.

"They were part of the team which removed the safeguard against outsourcing entrenched in Article 14(c) of the previous Collective Agreement effective between 1997 and 1999.

"Members will be the best judge of Prathiba Raj's claims that members' unsupportive attitude had contributed to the poor ticket sales for the dinner which eventually resulted in a deficit," he said.

Alert and educated

The representatives also said the failure of the biggest NUBE branch leaders to secure an encouraging attendance from among the VIPs, council members and general membership is "an utter disgrace to the union leadership" and shows their "incompetence as branch leaders".

"The claim that past committees had spent much more than the present one is a blatant lie. Never has any past KL branch committee organised an annual affair at a loss. In fact, we've always ended with a surplus. Our annual events have also been graced by dignitaries from various bodies, including other trade unions.

"The branch should also have organised social or sports events on an annual basis in order to maintain unity but perhaps they are the ones who had contributed to the disunity by keeping mum for three years and holding a dinner after a directive from the NUBE headquarters," he said.

Rebutting the appeal for members to reunite and not listen to a self-centered media, a representative from Standard Chartered said since today's members were more alert and educated, the branch could not simply bulldoze through explanations without concrete proof.

"Using the poison-pen letters to justify the poor response is another lame excuse because the truth is that the membership has no confidence in the branch committee anymore.

"In trying to cut losses when organising the dinner, the branch committee has instead lost much more by paying for only 400 members. It would have been better if they had paid the RM120,000 and opened the doors for at least 1,500 members," said another representative from Bank Islam.