WHY SBEU
SHOULD REPRESENT NON-EXECUTIVES OFFICERS
1. The Sarawak Bank Employees
Union (SBEU) is a national Union registered under the Trade
Unions Act 1959 on 22/9/1966. To date it represents 3000
employees in 26 Commercial Banks and 16 Finance Companies
operating in Sarawak. The majority of the members comprise of
non-clericals, clericals and special grade clerks who perform
duties ranging from messengers to clerical to supervisory in
nature.
2. Under Rule 3 of our
Constitution, membership at the Union shall be open to all
employees excluding managerial staff, confidential staff and
security guards of any commercial bank or any finance company in
Sarawak licensed under Section 6(4) of the Banking and Financial
Institution Act 1989 whose place of work is in the State of
Sarawak.
3. This is a much wider scope
than the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), which only
represent non-clerical, clerical and special grade clerk in
Commercial Banks and Finance Companies that are wholly owned
subsidiary of commercial banks in Peninsular Malaysia.
4. ABOM or Association of Bank
Officers in Malaysia is a National Trade Union catering for
officers. It was registered on 14/12/1978. The ABOM caters for 2
categories of officers viz.:
- Class II Officer and
(O.2.'s)
- Internal Officer (I.O.'s)
5. It must be noted that ABOM
was formed after officers split from NUBE. Thus the O.2.'S and
I.O.'s were once covered by NUBE.
6. There are 26 Commercial
Banks and about 20 Finance Companies operating in Sarawak,
spread over more 200 Branches throughout the State. It is
estimated that there are about 500 officers in the said
categories.
7. In Peninsular Malaysia, the
I.O.'s and O.2's of the Banks are represented by ABOM and
covered by the ABOM/MCBA Collective Agreement. The job functions
of these officers in Peninsular Malaysia are broadly similar to
those in Sarawak. (Please note that ABOM's scope is limited
to Peninsular Malaysia)
8. In 1997 and 1998 SBEU
recruited more than 95 % of these categories of Officers in the
following Banks:
EON Bank Bhd, Bank Utama Malaysia Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd,
Oriental Bank Bhd, RHB Bank and Kewangan Utama Bhd and Delta
Finance Bhd
9. SBEU then submitted claims
for recognition claim for recognition to the management under S
(9)(2) of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 (the Act). The
management rejected the claims.
10. The issue is therefore
whether these officers falls outside the scope of SBEU's
representation by virtue of the exclusions under s9 (1). i.e.
whether these officers can be considered as under the security,
confidential, executive or managerial categories.
11. Award 54/81 between
ABOM & MCBA defines these employees as (pp138 MLLR 1981):-
"(c) Class II officers
are appointed either by promotion from the banks' clerical
grades or by direct appointment of holders of the Diploma in
banking or Diploma in Business Studies.
"(d) Internal officers are recruited from the ranks of
the Banks' clerical grade by way of promotion. Some are first
promoted to this grade and subsequently promoted to Class II
officers. ALL, however, are considered superior to the
Banks' Special Grade Clerk ......"
12. The Honourable Mr. Justice
Harun (as he then was), stated in ICA 54/81 (pp138 MLLR 198)
that
"(e) It is also common
ground that both grades (i.e. Class II and I.O's) occupy the
intermediate position in the banking hierarchy between the
clerical grades and the managerial grade.....They belong to
the Intermediate or Supervisory group, above the clerical but
below the Managerial ..."
13. It is therefore now
established that I.O's & O.2.'s as per the ABOM agreement
are in the supervisory category.
14. Two questions needs to be
answered
- Whether these said officers
are in the supervisory category as defined under the ABOM
Collective Agreement?
- If they are, do they fall
under executive or managerial categories under s (9)(1) of
the Act?
15. Titles and Job
Functions
In deciding on the scope,
the titles are not important but the job functions are. As
stated by CP Mills (Industrial Disputes Law in Malaysia 2nd
Ed. pp. 35): -
"Whether persons who are designated occupy managerial
positions is a question of fact in each case, the criteria on
being whether they exercise effective powers.... and it will
not be assumed that they have such powers unless this is shown
by evidence".
16. Supervisory duties is
further defined by the Industrial Courts (as quoted in National
Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products V.
Wilkinson Rubber Process Co. Ltd. ICA 6/64 in CP Mills,
Industrial Disputes Law in Malaysia 2Ed. pp34).
Supervisory duties "meant" duties of the individual
having authority in the interests of the employer to engage,
transfer, suspend, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or
discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, to
adjust their grievances or effectively recommend such action,
the exercise of such authority not being merely routine or
of a clerical nature but the use of independent judgment."
17. 'Executive' is defined as
'one who holds a position of administrative or managerial responsibility
in a business or other organisation' by the Webster's 3rd New
International Dictionary-Unabridge edition and as "a person
in a business Organisation who has the power to act on
important decisions' by the Times Chambers Dictionary. 1989 edition
i.e. not day to day decisions.
18. THE DUTIES OF THE SAID
OFFICERS
The job duties of officers
would vary from bank to bank but generally they are as
follows:
- authorising transactions
up to pre defined limits
- check reports and posting
by clerks
- attend to customer
complaints and inquiries
- check typing and issuing
of drafts/telegraphic transfers
- check opening of new
accounts
- check and initial bank
vouchers up to designated limits
- cancellation of cheques
and verification of signature
- monitor and supervisor
subordinates in undertaking daily duties for even
distribution of workload
- perform checks of daily
balancing and branch balancing
- countersign bankers
cheques up to authorised limits
- dual control of ATM
- handle clearing
operations at Bank Negara
- process loan/credit
applications
- marketing and sales
functions
19. Clearly, most of them do
not have the power, discretion nor the authority to engage,
transfer, suspend, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or
discipline other employees (see no 15). The
I.Os do not even have authority to approved overtime and other
claims. They therefore cannot be supervisory staff, much less
executive staff! Even if the 0.2s are supervisory staff, do they
fall under the executive category under the Act?
20. It must also be noted that
some other Banks and employers in Sarawak have readily accepted
that supervisory staffs are non-executives as reflected in their
organisational structure.
21. In Airline Workers Union
Sarawak (AWUS), a national Union membership eligibility is the
same as for SBEU. Yet Malaysia Airline recognised the Union to
represent its supervisory staff and to include these categories
in the scope of the Collective Agreement.
They include:
- Ticketing Supervisor
& Reservation Supervisor
- Cargo Supervisor &
Traffic Supervisor
22. Similarly Kesatuan
Kakitangan Petroliam Nasional Sarawak is recognised by Petroliam
Nasional Bhd to represent its supervisory staff. -Appendix 2.
They include:
- Offshore Supervisor
- Foreman
- Station Supervisor
- Shift Leader
- Depot supervisor
23. JOB DUTIES OF
SUPERVISORY STAFF IN MALAYSIAN AIRLINE
As can be seen in Appendix 3
- The job description of the reservation/ticketing supervisors
of Malaysia Airline is much higher that the job duties of the I.O.'s
& O.2.'s of EON Bank, yet they are within the scope of
AWUS representation and recognition.
Their duties include:
- prepare and plan shift
and leave roster for staff
- Ensure the availability
of manpower in the various units on daily basis and
rearranging the redeployment of staff when required.
- monitor subordinates in
undertaking daily duties
- investigate to recover
short collections on tickets and cash collections
- authorise overtime and
meal allowance claims by subordinates staff-
- provides supervision and
monitors discipline of subordinate staff
- provides in house
training for staff
24. Hongkong Bank Malaysia
Bhd - Customer Services Coordinators (CSO-CSR - Appendix 4)
In Hongkong Bank CSO and CSR
are covered within the scope of SBEU representation and the
SBEU/SCBA Collective Agreement and their job duties are as
follows:
- supervise and monitor
tellers workload to ensure even distribution of work
- check and validate
clearing/transfer and cash cheques within authorised
limits
- perform surprise random
detail count of tellers cash boxes
- perform daily checks of
balancing of clearing cheque and cheque collection control
and balancing
- override/authorise
transactions within designated authority and value
- checking and control of
alarm systems
- control of cheque books
issued
- approve opening and
closing of accounts
- dual control/ of ATM
25. Standard Chartered Bank
- Special Grade Clerks
In Standard Chartered Bank,
the Service Leader falls under the Special Grade Clerk in the
SCBA/SBEU Collective Agreement and is under SBEU
representation. Their job duties include, amongst others:
- Every service leader
will lead a team of service assistant and will be
directly responsible to the customer Relationship Manager
- To guide and train
clerical staff to discharge their responsibilities
more efficiently, ensuring team members are multi skilled.
- to recommend solutions to
problems encountered
- checking and collating of
reports
- To assist the Customer
Relationship Manager in the counter service planning
exercise and daily allocation of clerical duties.
- to approve and authorise
transactions within delegated authority and limits
- Approving cash payments
up to RM30, 000 and signing of bankers cheques and drafts
up to RM150, 000.
- authorise all inputs of
data/limits and repair of data
- handle clearing
operations at Bank Negara
- cancellation of
cheques/verification of signature
- authorise debits and
credits entries
- undertake dual control
functions
- attend and resolve
customers complaints/inquiries
- controls of securing
documents for safe keeping
26. MAYBANK- Special Grade
Clerks
In Mayban the unionised
Special Grade Clerks performs these functions:
- Receiving and paying of
cash items within designated authority
- signing of internal
vouchers
- checking and verifying
all activities of tellers
- dual control of ATM
- control and release of
checkbooks, PIN, bank drafts, bankers cheques etc.
27. AUTHORITY TRANSACTION
LIMITS.
The transaction value and
authorised limits of most I.O.'s and O.2.'s are much lower
than Special Grade clerks are and non-executive officers of
other Banks.
28. SALARY
In EON Bank, the officers
salary are less that the clerk.
29. CONCLUSION
If one analyses the job function/authority
and responsibility of the unionised Special Grade Clerk, one
would note that a lot of the functions of some Unionised
employees in some banks are much superior to the said
officers, especially the I.O's.
It is our view therefore that the Internal
Officers in the above-mentioned banks do not perform work as
laid out by ICA 54/81. In fact some of the functions are much
inferior to clerical especially Special Grade Clerks in other
banks. They would therefore falls under the scope of SBEU
representation.
The rest (Class 2 Officers) perform
supervisory duties that are non-executive in nature. Even if
they do perform some supervisory work, they still fall within
the scope of SBEU following the AWUS and KAPENAS example. They
are not within the excluded categories under (9)(1)(a-d) of
the Act.
Accordingly the Class 2 officers would also
fall under the scope of SBEU representation.
SBEU has over the past 30
years worked closely with the Banks and Finance Companies in
creating one of the most harmonious relations that have
contributed to the growth and profitability of the Industry. We
have worked closely to improve efficiency and productivity of
Bank employees in Sarawak. We believe that we can achieve the
same if we are accorded recognition to also represent the
non-executive officers.
Further the ongoing mergers
and structural changes in the bank would result in the
overlapping of duties between the clericals and the non
executive officers. By according recognition to represent all of
them, the Banks would benefit in being able better manage the
Human Resources needs of the bank in the next millennium.
The relationship between SBEU
and the Banks will be further strengthened.
The very good response from
the officers themselves indicates their willingness to be
represented by SBEU.
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