HSBC's decision to terminate 241 of its call centre employees in Leboh Ampang without redeployment has been soundly condemned.

The banking giant said it decided to shut down the local call centre in accordance with its global corporate policy to increase efficiency.

All in-bound calls to the call centre Ampang will now be channelled to the bank's electronic data processing nerve centre in Cyberjaya.

Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) secretary general G Rajasekaran urged human resource minister Datuk Dr S Subramaniam to intervene and resolve the matter.

"We are deeply concerned with the management's inconsiderate approach... HSBC should make every effort to relocate the affected employees.

No offer of alternate jobs

"Contrary to a press statement in a business daily, the management did not offer the retrenched workers any alternate jobs within the company," said Rajasekaran ( below ).

mtuc cawp water tariff pc 171006 g rajasekaran "Since HSBC claims that the 241workers constitute only five per cent of its workforce (in Malaysia), it can easily absorb them in other departments," he added.

A source told Malaysiakini that many of the call centre workers would be left stranded because several options being considered by HSBC to aid affected workers were not feasible.

"Among the options were to apply for jobs at Electronic Data Processing Malaysia Sdn Bhd (HDPM) in cyberjaya, or seeking positions elsewhere within HSBC.

No vacancies in HSBC

"This is very unfair. There are no vacancies within HSBC, and if workers are to be given jobs in Cyberjaya, they would have to re-apply all over once more," said the source

"They would be at a disadvantage as workers would be competing with other fresh applicants and would be employed at lower starting salary.

"This should not be the case," the source continued, "as most of HSBC's workers at the Kuala Lumpur call center have been working there for about 10 years.

The process of closing the call centre will take nine months from now. They are to be released in four batches, with the first 45 workers leaving by the end of October this year.