Proposals made by HSBC aimed at ending an industrial dispute fall short, the Malta Union of Bank Employees (MUBE) said this morning.

The union and the bank have been locked in a dispute over a collective agreement, with the union holding a strike of several days earlier this month. The strike ended after intervention by the office of the prime minister, but the union said today that new HSBC proposals fell short. 

"The ‘concrete’ proposals received by the union are very short of solving the current impasse between bank and union," the MUBE said.

It insisted that the talks should focus only on outstanding issues and the bank cannot ‘retract’ positions held prior to a draft agreement in August 2014.

"The union is not interested in re-opening negotiations wide open but rather concluding on the remaining differences," it insisted.

It said the latest bank proposal showed a 'slight effort' but the proposed financial increases were misleading, very minimal and did not compensate for what was originally ‘agreed’ in August 2014.