Banking union requests amicable resolution to HSBC impasse

The Malta Union of Banking Employees has asked for a conciliation meeting with the acting director at the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations, after the bank did not return with an answer on the Prime Minister’s offer for mediation.

“The union only seeks mediation when there is serious disagreement or stalemate,” the MUBE said.

“The bank’s unwillingness to collaborate has fuelled much unwarranted speculation amongst the workforce about whether the bank has serious intentions to reach agreement.”

The union has attacked HSBC for unilaterally reneging on a collective agreement, blaming the bank’s ‘old school’ practices to people management.

Earlier this year, strike action by some 900 HSBC employees was brought to an end by the intervention of the OPM after the MUBE registered an industrial dispute. The OPM offered to mediate, but HSBC management was accused of delaying tactics.

MUBE said CEO Mark Watkinson, who was asked to be personally present for negotiations, was resisting increasing salaries. The union says its requests are based on rising inflation and forecasted positive growth figures.

“The rest of the differences are strongly about bank’s modus operandi and its overall attitude towards its own employees which is all the more becoming senseless to the detriment of local culture,” MUBE said.