Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 27, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) said yesterday it was taken aback by news regarding the retirement of Datuk Seri Nazir Razak as the group chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd come Dec 31, and hopes Nazir will reconsider his decision.

“We hope he will continue to contribute his expertise and knowledge to the Malaysian banking industry and for better industrial relations,” it said in a statement.

NUBE said although there had been “stormy challenges” between the trade union and CIMB in the past, Nazir was able to weather them by adopting the social dialogue mechanism and giving an audience to it to discuss issues affecting workers and thereby settling issues amicably.

“We recall that he was instrumental in resolving the collective bargaining dispute in 2008 when he honoured his word to incorporate the cost of living allowance in the subsequent collective agreement, which alleviated to a certain extent the financial burden of over 30,000 bank workers.

“After settling a trade dispute between CIMB and NUBE, he attended our Triennial Delegates Conference in 2014 and in addressing the delegates, he said ‘We can agree to disagree. But we cannot deviate from working together’. This was a reflection of his maturity and leadership trait,” noted NUBE.

As such, his announcement has taken many by surprise as he is comparatively young and still has much to offer to the banking industry, it added.

“There are not many chairmen or presidents of his calibre, and NUBE considers his departure to be a great loss to the banking sector. It needs to be mentioned that like his contemporaries in Malayan Banking Bhd and Public Bank Bhd, he took the lead in humanising employment policies of the bank in the interest of workers,” said NUBE.

On Monday, Nazir announced that by Dec 31, he will have relinquished all his positions within CIMB. He has been the chairman of the group since 2014 and was previously the group CEO for 15 years.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share