Malayan Commercial Banks’ Association (MCBA) successfully concluded the collective agreement with the Association of Bank Officers (ABOM). The signing ceremony was held at the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on 18 January 2013.

This is the 11^th successive collective agreement signed between the parties for the period 2012-2014.

With the conclusion of the collective agreement, more than five thousand officers employed by 10 member banks of MCBA would receive a salary adjustment at 10% across the board with retrospective effect from 1.1.2012, besides the various enhancements made to other monetary and fringe benefits.

At the signing ceremony, MCBA was represented by its President, Puan Nora Manaf and Executive Director, Mr. YY Lam while ABOM was represented also by its President, Encik Wan Shaharuddin Shah Ismail and General Scretary, Mr. Ng Choo Seong. The Guest-of-Honor, Puan Noor Azian binti Jamaludin, Ketua Penolong Pengarah from the Ministry of Human Resources, witnessed the signing of the MCBA/ABOM collective agreement. The signed collective agreement would be recorded as a Consent Award by the Industrial Court.

Puan Nora Manaf, President of MCBA in her speech, commended the negotiating teams from both the parties for being able to bring the negotiation to an amicable closure within a comparatively shorter time. She also recorded her appreciation to the Union’s General Secretary, Mr. Ng Choo Seong and his negotiating team for consistently demonstrating professional conduct during the negotiation. Among other things, she highlighted that the usefulness of a collective agreement should not be measured solely in terms of how much the workers gain in pay and benefits, or how much the employers can save. The real measure of success is the extent to which the collective agreement has been designed to help improve organization productivity and performance which in turn serves to enhance future earning and proper growth of both the organization and employees. In her closing remarks, she also reminded the parties to remain risk-aware, productive and effective to deal with the challenges ahead in view of the uncertainty in the global economic outlook.

Among the Guests-of-Honor who attended the signing ceremony was Ms. Chuah Mei Lin, Executive Director of the Association of Banks in Malaysia and Mr. Sivagnanam Seenithamy, former Executive Director of MCBA. They were joined by a number of Heads of Human Resources from member banks, including Puan Nor Rozita Nordin, Affin Bank, Nik Ilyana Mohamed,Deutsche Bank, Puan Roselaini Faiz, Hong Leong Bank, other officials from the Ministry of Human Resources, EXCO members from both MCBA and ABOM, together with many human resources practitioners from member banks.