Approving the formation of an in-house union for Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) employees contravenes the Industrial Relations Act (1967), said opposition MP Charles Santiago.

“We consulted our lawyers and they have given their view that it is not possible. The Industrial Relations Act is very clear that when you have a union already representing the workers, you can’t allow the registration of another union,” he said at a press conference at the Parliament lobby.

NONE Charles (DAP-Klang) ( left ) was responding to a written reply from the Human Resources Ministry reasoning that the in-house union represents the workers of the establishment and not the industry.  

“The registration of Maybank’s Non-executive Workers Union (MAYNEU) is in accordance to Article 10(1)(c) of the constitution and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention No 98, Article 2(1) on the right to organise and collective bargaining.

“The Director-General of Trade Unions registered MAYNEU on Jan 3, 2011 as an establishment workers’ union and not as an industry-based workers’ union like the National Union of Banking Employees (Nube),” said the ministry in the written reply date March 13.

The ministry further reiterated that the director-general has the discretion under the Trade Unions Act (1959) whether to approve a union, while Section 11 of the Industrial Relations Act allows for another union to be formed even though there is an existing union for the unionised employees.

However, the ministry did not cite the rationale for authorising MAYNEU, simply adding that the disputed unions have the right to hold a nationwide secret balloting process where the employees can choose their representation.

“But the question now is why is the government allowing for this? Is this a way to break the national union? Because Nube has set high standards in the demands they have made in the past and these demand have been realised,” opined Charles.

‘Bank had acted underhandedly’

Nube honorary assistant secretary-general Karuna Anantharasa, who was also at the press conference, said that the national bank had acted underhandedly in mooting an in-house union.

“We have been fighting to get the Maybank employees 18 months’ bonus, given that the Maybank directors have received  eight months’ bonus every year for the last 10 years.

“The problem that is any seven person can actually apply to form a union but the director-general of trade unions has the authority to actually make a decision whether the union should be registered or not, and the Act is very clear - there cannot be multiple unions.

“Now what the Human Resources Ministry together with Maybank has done is, they are supporting an in-house union which is representing the very same category of workers who are represented by Nube,” said Karuna.

She claimed that existing Nube members are constantly “threatened” and harassed to join the in-house union instead.

Karuna added that Nube had also appealed to Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam to overturn the director-general’s authorisation and filed an application for a judicial review at the same time.

Meanwhile, Subramaniam, when contacted, said that the authorisation was given on the grounds that the union members “were unhappy with Nube”.

“Within two to three weeks they filed the court case against the director-general... so I said let the court decide,” he said.

“Unfortunately what has happened is that Nube’s lawyers made a technical mistake in filing it in court, and the court set aside the case,” said Subramaniam, adding that Nube should have waited for the minister’s decision first.

However, Karuna rebutted Subramaniam’s assertion, saying that the minister is falling back on the excuse that Nube did not exhaust all other avenues before taking legal action.

“We did have a meeting with the minister and he said he will give us a decision in two weeks but he didn’t. We only had 30 days to file the judicial review application, so we did both.

“In fact we had given an assurance, in writing, that we will withdraw the case if the minister decides on Nube’s appeal against MAYNEU,” she said.