The Malaysian Trades Union Congress has called for cooler heads in a bitter stand-off between banking union members and their leadership after the organisation's secretary-general J Solomon was shockingly sacked.

"We are not happy with the controversy and we are very concerned. We don't want to see the weakening of any of the trade unions, and what is more important is the welfare of the banking employees especially with job security in these times," said MTUC secretary-general G Rajasekaran told malaysiakini .

"If the union can work its problems, so much the better, but if they want to use the offices of MTUC to resolve this matter, we will help," he added.

Rajasekaran stressed that the congress would not be taking sides should it be asked to intervene.

The furore began on Tuesday when the National Union of Bank Employees' (Nube) secretary-general Solomon was sacked during a union executive council meeting. He was only in his third month on the job.

Many union members have already called for a strike in protest against the action; some even claimed of a 'vendetta' against Solomon.

Others have been reported to be carrying out signature campaigns and are contemplating calling for an extraordinary delegates conference of the union to discuss the controversy.

Major retrenchments

Employees in the banking industry have been facing tough times after it was announced last year that a total of 54 banks would be consolidated into 10 anchor banks, which meant that low-level staff could faced major retrenchment exercises.

According to a Sun report today, the Tuesday meeting of the union's executive council was to discuss the retrenchment of 'non-essential' staff in the banking industry, an idea mooted by the Bank Negara.

The report also added that Solomon was in the midst of investigating the union's payment of RM1.3 million to BBMB Securities for contra-deal losses in 1996 despite a remisier clearing the union of any responsibility.

Rajasekaran said NUBE officials met with him yesterday and explained that Solomon was sacked because of his 'incompetence'.

"When I met with the officials I told them that the most important thing is the unity of the union. The union leadership should be more concerned with the state of the banking employees," Rajasekaran said.