On 10.3.2017, the Federal Court delivered its judgment by dismissing the appeal by the Maybank Non-Executive Union (MAYNEU) over its registration by the Director-General of Trade Union under section 12 of the Trade Union Act 1959.
This judgment brought to a closure of a protracted dispute between the parties concerned.
The dispute first arose when the Director-General of Trade Union approved on 3.1.2011 to register MAYNEU, which was formed by a group of clerical and non-clerical employees of Maybank, as an in-house trade union to represent non-executive employees of Maybank in West Malaysia.
The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), a trade union that represents non-executive employees in the banking industry in West Malaysia, was aggrieved by the registration, filed a judicial review application on 10.2.2011 to challenge the registration of MAYNEU. The High Court however, dismissed the application on 7.11.2013.
On appeal by NUBE, the Court of Appeal heard the substantive issue on 2.7.2014 and delivered its judgment on 17.9.2014 to set aside the registration of the in-house union primarily on the basis that for procedural fairness, the Director-General of Trade Union should have given an opportunity to NUBE to state its case before deciding on the registration of the in-house union.
This led to an appeal by MAYNEU to the Federal Court which heard the case on 13.1.2016. The Federal Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal by stating inter alia that the Director-General of Trae Union must consult all relevant parties before making a decision to register a competing trade union in the same industry and the Director-General is obliged to consider the effect of registering a trade union on the workers concerned and the industry at large.