29 July 2002

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.
 

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 √