The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) continues to question the sincerity of the government in resolving its long-standing leadership crisis which has disrupted union activities and affected members.

"We are appalled by the contradicting statements made by the (human resources) ministry over the crisis since August last year," said J Solomon, who is the general secretary in the faction led by Abdul Jalil Hamid.

He was referring to various statements made by Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn and Dr Mohd Yahya Nordin, the chief of the special task force formed a few months ago to settle the crisis since the court decision.

On Oct 29, the High Court upheld the judicial review sought by Abdul Jalil's group following the director-general of trade union's (DGTU) endorsement of the exco line-up aligned to rival leader Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin last year.

On Saturday, Fong reportedly said attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail would file an appeal against the recent declaration that both warring factions were illegal.

He was quoted in The Star as saying that the AG will attempt to reverse the decision nullifying the DGTU's endorsement.

Fong said the ministry would wait for the Court of Appeal to decide on the matter before considering the next step.

Abdul Gani could not be reached for confirmation.

Complicating matters

Solomon said when the task force was set up, the ministry asked the factions to set aside their differences, including matters pending in court, and work towards a fresh election.

"Today, it is the ministry that is seeking to challenge a High Court decision."

He claimed the ministry was obviously biased in refusing to resolve the problem, choosing instead to complicate matters further by attempting to overturn the court ruling.

He said the ministry should focus on an election because not only has the court validated the pre-crisis exco of Nov 1, the task force has also been calling for a fresh election from the start.

Therefore, he added that the application of Section 4A of the Trade Union Act 1959 "is timely and necessary".

This section affords the DGTU with very wide powers to direct a union to take any appropriate action in instances where the law does not specify what the DGTU can do.

"Since the minister is unclear of the scope of Section 4A, the ministry could apply to court for an interpretation instead."

He cited a related case - National Union of Newspaper Workers v Ketua Pengarah Kesatuan Sekerja (2003) - in which the Federal Court interpreted one aspect of the power provided by Section 4A.

Solomon also claimed that the ministry was protecting the rival faction "for reasons best known to them".

"This is (clear) in the (ministry's) lackadaisical attitude in taking action to recover the RM1.2 million in union funds that was removed by the other group from two NUBE accounts," he said.

He added that the ministry's reluctance to reveal the external audit report commissioned by them was also very telling.