The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) faction led by Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin today accused its rivals headed by Abdul Jalil Abdul Hamid of dabbling with union funds by operating an illegal account in AmBank Berhad.

He claimed NUBE's main accounts were in three banks Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad, Bumiputra-Commerce Bank Berhad and HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad all of which have been frozen pending the final outcome of the internal dispute.

"The other side is illegally using the Kuala Lumpur branch's account in AmBank for expenses. It is illegal because a branch's account cannot be used by the headquarters," he said when contacted.

He claimed the union's president, general secretary and general treasurer were the signatories for the account when it should be the branch officials.

"I have written to AmBank (last July), Bank Negara and the Trade Union Affairs Department in the Human Resources Ministry several times since last year about these discrepancies but we have heard nothing so far," he said.

Muhammad Fauzi said this when asked to comment o­n the return of more than RM600,000 to the NUBE account in BCB Bank o­n Feb 28 the day Abdul Jalil's faction got the court to order the return of the funds.

Muhammad Fauzi was the union president before the infighting began following the ouster of rival team member J Solomon as general secretary in October 2001.

Being protective

He was also perplexed as to the bank's motive of "being protective and defensive of Solomon's side".

"We don't know o­n what basis the bank had approved such an arrangement, but there is no record with the trade union affairs department that these people are the legitimate union officials," he said.

Asked about the remaining half a million, he said it has been "placed somewhere for safe-keeping".

"We returned half to ensure that the funds are in a proper place and not in some illegal account managed by certain individuals posing as NUBE office-bearers," he added.

Last week, 15 NUBE members and ex-officials walked away with RM1.2 million from two banks within 24 hours following an interim order against named individuals, who are elected officials, preventing them from handling the union's main accounts.

Two days after the withdrawals, the High Court ordered the monies returned to the respective accounts, failing which contempt proceedings would follow.

Diversion tactics

When contacted later, Solomon said the Kuala Lumpur branch had never opened an account of its own.

"The AmBank account is the union headquarters' and the signatories are the principal office-bearers. o­nly Penang, Ipoh and Klang have their own accounts," he said.

Solomon said the union has a total of six branches following the suspension of three last year, leading to the merger of Johor Baru with Klang, and Kelantan and Pahang with Penang, while the KL branch remains.

"Allegations of illegal accounts and other sorts are basically tactics to deviate members' attention from the damage they (Muhammad Fauzi's faction) have already caused so far," he claimed.

The AmBank account was opened roughly a year ago following the other three banks' decision to freeze the NUBE's main accounts holding the general and benevolent funds.

Only the account in HSBC Bank is operational through an interpleader where the bank and both feuding factions had agreed for premiums to be paid directly to Great Eastern Life Assurance (M) Berhad.

Today's Malay Mail reported that People's Progressive Party president M Kayveas had offered to mediate the internal dispute.

Kayveas, who is also a cabinet member, was quoted as saying that the party was in a good position to help the union, having survived a protracted leadership battle themselves.

Endorse office-bearers

Solomon, however, believes that internal stability would prevail if the trade union affairs department endorses the office-bearers as elected by the members last year.

Last December, the union suspended plans for a picket and work-to-rule campaign o­n the advise of Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan o­nn, who promised to resolve the union-bank tiff using a special formula.

The NUBE has accused banks of exploiting the union's internal dispute and carrying out union-busting exercises by revoking the automatic union subscription deduction facility or check-offs.

"Unless Fong tells us that he has officially given up o­n mediating the dispute, we will not listen to anyone else," said Solomon, adding that the ministry should seriously look into the RM1.2 million issue.

"The minister and department officials cannot just pretend to be blind or deaf about this because the situation is getting out of hand," he said.

He said just because the department was adamant against endorsing the elected officials, everyone else especially the expelled members were having a free hand with union funds.

"The fact is that members' mandate cannot be ignored. As it is, we are already facing a lot of problems in the banking industry," he added.

Solomon is confident that had the department endorsed the list of elected officials, matters would not have come this far.