Updated 5 p.m. - Adds HSCS reaction - A banker's missing suitcase has complicated a bruising dispute between HSBC Bank and the Malta Union of Bank Employees (MUBE).
The dispute was revealed by The Times earlier this week.
The union this morning gave a timeline of its version of how the dispute developed, while adding developments related to the missing suitcase.
It said that on August 16 it registered a trade dispute to address the bank's 'intransigent approach' to a restructuring process being proposed by the bank in its Wealth Management Section – a section of the bank that sells Investment products.
On September 24 the union ordered industrial action at Wealth Management and the whole section of 50 employees went out on strike for two-and-a-half weeks.
On October 8, the union unilaterally referred the case to the Industrial Tribunal since, it said, the bank was not willing to apply jointly with the union to accelerate the process.
On the next day, it filed a request for a warrant for prohibitory injunction to safeguard the status quo and to counter a clear threat against dismissal after two female employees who, it said, were threatened with dismissal if they obeyed the union directive – these employees confirmed these threats under oath in the hearing before Mr.Justice J.Zammit Mckeon.
On October 11 the Wealth Management staff returned to work after two and a half weeks on strike. The union said they returned with a 'business as usual' approach.
MISSING BRIEFCASE
On October 12, an MUBE official who is also a manager at Wealth Management immediately reported that his briefcase was missing. He fully collaborated with the bank in its investigations. The briefcase was believed to be lost on the bank's premises.
The union says that it was common practice within the department to carry such information and that management was fully aware of this practice.
"Although no particularly sensitive information was contained in the briefcase the bank purposely chose to escalate the matter to hit back at the union official representing the striking section. Coincidentally, the employee and union official was also one of the individuals threatened by the bank with dismissal if he obeyed a legitimate union directive," the union said.
On October 15 the union official was suspended from work following an investigation of this alleged security breach.
"Whilst the Bank is contending that this specific incident is not connected to the ongoing trade dispute, MUBE strongly believes that the current suspension of its trade union official is in retaliation to the successful industrial action held in the past weeks," the union said.
It said that on October 17, the management unilaterally introduced new procedures without consulting the MUBE, contrary to agreed practice and the spirit of dialogue. This, the union said, was again is a breach of the collective agreement between the union and the bank.
The MUBE then ordered the Wealth Management Team 'not to continue co-operating with the fact-finds and investigations being conducted by the bank and this was also done in solidarity with their suspended colleague.'
The union said that in retaliation, the bank chose to escalate matters by ordering a lock-out for all the employees in the department without pay for an indefinite period 'for following a legitimate Union directive.'
The union said that such 'bullying tactics' were not conducive to a solution to this impasse, saying that high net worth customers of the bank have now found themselves in a situation in which they don't have their financial advisors to assist them with their investment decisions.
"It has to be noted that this situation has been ongoing for more than a month with no imminent hope for the matter to be resolved anytime soon," the union said.
HSBC STATEMENT
In a statement, HSBC said:
"As stated earlier this week by HSBC Bank Malta, an incident involving the loss of physical data has taken place. An employee is currently suspended from work, pending investigations in relation to this incident.
The Bank treats such incidents extremely seriously and is carrying out a full internal investigation on this incident. Given the ongoing investigation, HSBC cannot divulge further details on the incident. The Bank has no further media comment to make at this stage and will be presenting its position within the appropriate fora."