KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) said its members will begin nationwide picketing today over a breakdown in contract negotiations with commercial banks.

NUBE general secretary J. Solomon accused the banks of engaging in union-busting activity and violating bank workers’ rights to life and free association, among others.

"A significant number of the banks are government-linked companies who are acting contrary to their purpose of existence,” he said in a statement today.

"Local and foreign owned banks, emboldened by the GLCs example, are also becoming blatant in their transgressions against the rights of the workers. Regulatory bodies, however, are silent of their misconduct, favouring the oppressors.”

The announcement did include any other details on the protests.

The NUBE and the Malayan Commercial Banks Association (MCBA) have been locked in a dispute over a memorandum of agreement signed last year, primarily over the payment of a "festival” bonus to workers amounting to a month’s salary.

NUBE previously accused Human Resources Minister Steven Sim of over-reach by deciding the "festival” bonus should be ad hoc and only half a month’s pay, instead of as stated in the MoA.

Among others, it said Sim made the decision unilaterally and without consulting or informing the union.