The National Union Of Bank Employees (NUBE) has condemned HSBC Malaysia’s move to offer employees the voluntary separation scheme (VSS) and mutual separation scheme (MSS).
“This is the third time within the last six years the bank has implemented such schemes. NUBE is of the view that HSBC, as an international bank that continues to record profits, should not implement VSS and MSS, which are a form of subtle lay-offs which will impact around 600 employee,” the Union said.
According to The Edge Markets, the HSBC management had announced the separation schemes despite two discussions taking place on May 25 and 28 respectively.
In a response to the Union’s statement, HSBC Malaysia told BusinessToday that the bank is investing in new technology to transform via digital enablement, which aims to create 200 new roles.
“We are offering certain segments of our workforce a voluntary separation scheme which they may choose to take advantage of should redeployment not be possible. We would like to reiterate that the scheme is voluntary and will only be applied to employees that choose to accept it.
“We are committed to providing our employees who choose to accept the voluntary separation with comprehensive transitional support including an above-market compensation package and reskilling programmes,” the bank said.
This comes after recent condemning of HSBC’s move to outsource jobs to third parties which the Union referred to as a national security risk and affects employees in the B40 and M40 categories.
According J Solomon, the General Secretary of NUBE, the outsourcing practice has caused many HSBC Malaysia employees in the B40 and M40 groups to lose their jobs while many more are expected to suffer a similar predicament.
“Many Malaysian workers are expected to be laid off ahead of HSBC’s transfer to Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) next March,” he said.
“HSBC has been actively retrenching B40 and M40 workers on the pretext of outsourcing and implementing automation and digitisation. Unfortunately Bank Negara, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Human Resources are merely watching like silent bystanders are merely watching like silent bystanders, without making any attempt to protect the workers,” he added.
