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To
all Members
SBEU Sarawak
29 July 2002
Dear colleagues,
COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT DISPUTE WITH SCBA
1. We wish to update members on the following :
2. The Industrial Court completed the hearing on the dispute in
August 2001. Despite SBEU requesting the court to make a decision as
soon as possible, the Court has yet to make its award. We fully
understand and share the frustration of all members.
3. Members must be aware that everyone took a decision to fight
this case because we strongly believe that the Banks are out to
exploit the current difficult economic conditions and demanded to
remove existing and fundamental safeguard on job security. Banks
wanted to replace permanent staff with temporary, contract and
outsourced staff.
4. Members may like to know that in Peninsular Malaysia and
Sabah, where both the Unions there signed the CA, thousands of jobs
have been outsourced and thousands of contract, temporary and
outsourced employees are already employed by the banks. This has not
yet happened on such a large scale in Sarawak. Members may also wish
to know that when the CA was signed with NUBE and Sabah BEU, the banks
readily agreed to deduct up to 10% of the arrears payable to members
as levy and donation to the unions without members direct consent).
5. When we first decided to fight and take this case to court
to prevent the banks from doing the same in Sarawak, there is always
the risk that the Court may award inferior terms on the monetary items
than those agreed by the banks in P Malaysia and Sabah. At the same
time we are also asking the court to award terms that are better than
those in Sabah and P Malaysia. Whatever the court decide, we have
tried our very best.
6. We would like to take this opportunity like to clarify the
issue of backdating of the Collective Agreement and the resulting
arrears payable to all members.
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SCBA, despite having agreed that the effective date
of the new CA will be 1 January 2000, have now refused to honour
their written agreement with SBEU and are demanding that the
Industrial court change the effective date to 1st September 2000.
SCBA is relying on section 30 of the Industrial Relations Act which
limit backdating to 6 months from the date of the Human Resource
Minister's reference in March 2001. Of course we are fighting this
claim in court and it is up to the court to decide.
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If the court agrees with SCBA's position, then
the arrears shall be from 1 September 2000 until the date the court
makes its award. So if the Court hands down its decision in November
2002, the total arrears will be Sept 2000 to Nov 2002 = 27 months.
If the decision is in March 2003, the arrears will be 31 months.
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If the court agree with SBEU's position, then
the backdating will be from 1 January 2000. For example, if the
Court hands down its decision in November 2002 the total arrears
will be from January 2000 to November 2002 i.e. 35 months. If the
decision is in March 2003, the arrears will be 39 months and so on.
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Therefore, the longer the court takes to makes its
decision, the more arrears members will get. There is no limit to
the maximum numbers of months of arrears payable, apart from the 6
month from Ministers reference rule mentioned in paragraph 6(a)
above.
7. We urge members to remain
steadfast in their belief and unity and solidarity, and not to succumb
to rumours created by those out to weaken the union. Your support in
these challenging and difficult times has make the difference in
ensuring that SBEU do not suffer the same fate as NUBE recently.
Please be guided accordingly
UNION YES √
Yours fraternally
ANDREW LO KIAN NYAN
GENERAL SECRETARY
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