Monday, December 23, 2013

MALAYSIA:::'Get the 27 sacked by Hong Leong Bank reinstated'


Order Hong Leong Bank to reinstate the 27 dismissed employees and stop the transfers of staff. 

This is the demand sent to the Human Resources Ministry today by the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).


NUBE and MTUC also called on the ministry to organise an immediate reconciliation meeting between the bank and the dismissed employees to resolve the issues.
NONE"We want the Human Resources Ministry to wake up and address this issue immediately. Order the two parties to meet.

"The ministry has to prove to us that it is helping workers," MTUC president Mohd Khalid Atan (left) said, adding that the ministry has not taken any action on this issue.

According to NUBE general secretary J Solomon, the union has had three meetings with the ministry, one on Oct 31 and two more on Nov 19 and Dec 4, at which the Hong Leong Bank officers too were present.

‘Minister has not taken any action'

"To date, the minister did not take any form of action against Hong Leong Bank for its violations, or to protect the workers," Solomon said at a joint press conference held in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, by NUBE and MTUC.

A total of 49 Hong Leong Bank employees from from Kedah, Pahang, Kelantan and Johor have been transferred to towns and cities in other states earlier this year and out of them, 27 workers who refused to accept their transfers were dismissed.
NONE"The dismissal of the 27 workers was without just cause or excuse," Solomon (right) said, adding that the 27 dismissed were mostly in the lower positions.

"All these workers do not want to be transferred out as they have heavy commitments. They have families to take care of," he said, and claimed that the 27 were also mistreated by the bank before their dismissal and not paid their two months' bonus.

Three of the 27 dismissed employees, from Also Setar, were also present at the press conference.

'I have old people to take care of'

One of them, a woman who was a clerk with the bank and who only wanted to be known as ‘Lee', said she was dismissed on Dec 18 for misconduct in not obeying her transfer order.
NONE"I do not want to transferred because I have old people to take care of in Alor Setar. On my salary, I cannot afford to live in a big city," said Lee, who was told to report to Penang.

"There are so many branches in Alor Setar and I see new workers posted there. Why can't they just transfer us to those branches, instead of hiring new staff?" said the Hong Leong Bank employee of nine years.

Lee said she was told that she was being transferred because her department, the credit administrative centre, was to be shut down. 

She consulted NUBE on this issue, rejected her transfer and stayed on to work at the branch's call centre, after which she received several show cause letters, before being sacked.
NONEAsean World Federation of Trade Unions president Abdul Razak Hassan (right) said such actions by the bank, if not checked, would influence other companies to do the same to their employees.

"This action is very dangerous, it will make other companies to do the same thing. Each of the 27 workers have their families to support, which means a lot more people than 27 workers are affected," Razak said.

NUBE members are protesting, outside the Hong Leong Bank Tower on Jalan Perak in Kuala Lumpur, from 9am to 7pm daily. The protest was launched last Monday, against the bank's mistreatment of its workers and the dismissals.

source:::http://www.malaysiakini.com

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