The National Union of Bank Employees (Nube) has decided to take industrial action against the CIMB Bank after it refused to meet the union's ultimatum to negotiate and resolve their trade

dispute.

j solomon nube sec gen 290806 calm The ultimatum expired at 5pm last Thursday, its general secretary, J Solomon told Bernama today.

He said the union's executive committee would meet later today to plan and map out the type of industrial action it would take to safeguard the interest of its 5,000 members in the bank.

According to Solomon, the dispute allegedly involved sexual harassment, extensive out sourcing, deliberately creating redundancy, unfair transfers, union busting and breach of collective agreement.

He said the union had given ample notice and time to the bank to negotiate a settlement, but "all our pleas and requests fell on deaf ears."

GST will generate RM1 bil revenue

In another development, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), proposed to be enforced in the third quarter of 2011, is projected to generate RM1 billion in annual tax revenue after the first year of introduction.

OSK Research said in its Investment Research Report that although there might be opposition to the GST, the Government’s move was understandable as it sought to diversify federal revenue sources with sustainable tax collection.

All this while, the country has been highly dependent on corporate income tax and petroleum revenue tax, both of which are subjected to volatility in the global economic cycles and commodity prices, OSK Research noted.

Being a limited natural resource, petroleum revenue has its risks.

Competition in wooing foreign investments means there are limits to raising corporate and petroleum taxes while the government’s operating cost and development expenditure continue to rise, thus resulting in a decade of budget deficits.

- Bernama