News

The General Secretary of UNI Global Union, Philip Jennings has made an urgent call to action to the Malaysian government to compel Malaysian banks to engage with the National Union of Bank Employees ( NUBE) in a positive and conciliatory discussion to resolve the labour relations crisis in the sector.



On a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Jennings took the time to investigate the troubled status of labour relations in the banking sector. He was surprised by the egregious abuses of the workers rights which indicate a “systemic failure of management to seek a constructive solution”.



He said, "This behavior should be ringing alarm bells at the highest level of government and at the central bank.

Our experience shows that a failure by banks in the labour relations area leads to deeper questions over the overall quality of the corporate governance of the banks concerned. We have now reached a tipping point of worker and customer abuse in the financial sector that can no longer be ignored by the government. "



Maybank, CIMB and Bank Muamalat are the 3 leading GLC banks in Malaysia. They aim to further expand their services to achieve a leading position in the ASEAN region. This is a sensible commercial aim but cannot be achieved with a business model that ignores developing a partnership with local unions here and in ASEAN.



Jennings said that “these banks must reset the management mindset” and build a new bridge to NUBE to resolve the outstanding issues. "What is puzzling to me is that the government which has such a significant shareholding in these banks is not intervening to change behavior."



He continued, "The Central Bank, Bank Negara’s has a critical role to play; they should not be satisfied with the labour relations climate. Their responsibility is to ensure the integrity and value systems of Malaysia’s banks are of the highest standing and reflected in the day to day management of banks. The time has come for Bank Negara to intervene to compel the banks to take effective measures to address the outstanding labour relations problems which are spilling over into other areas of bank activity.



In its oversight of Malaysia’s financial industry, Bank Negara has to examine bank balance sheets and capital adequacy ratios and must now ensure banks practice value systems that integrate ethics, fairness, good governance and financial integrity.



The world is still reeling from the financial crisis of 2007; the crisis was driven by the failures of corporate governance and bank supervision. We do not want history to repeat itself.



Good governance of the financial institutions in the country is integral to the national interest. One of the key governance benchmarks is the quality of labour relations in the finance sector. Here we see failure.



I am disappointed that the Malaysian Prime Minister who is also the Finance Minister has not acted on the global labour movement’s call to resolve these issues. The UNI Global Union in 2012 urged the Prime Minister to take affirmative action.



The Human Resources Ministry can do better than this, the labour issues are so grave that they should not be neglected.With “300 court cases pending, Malaysia, is at the bottom of the labour relations league table”.