By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Nov 7: The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) calls on the federal government to ensure bank employees will not lose their jobs when industries gravitate to digitalization and automation.
Its secretary-general J Solomon in a statement said some of NUBE members lost their jobs as certain irresponsible banks have outsourced their functions to overseas and local companies.
As a result, he hoped the multi-billion ringgit allocation by the federal government under Budget 2021 to turn Malaysia into a digital-based economy must not come at the expense of employees losing their jobs.
“We must ensure the workers benefit absolutely from this venture which will not only help them keep their jobs but also allow them to look for fresh options.
“They just cannot afford to lose their jobs as this will result in many socio-economic problems.
“While NUBE is not against automation, all we are asking is for the affected workers to be re-skilled and retrained to survive. So in this context, the RM1 billion is timely and must only be spent for this purpose.
“Let us be clear that there is no room for compromise here.
“National interest is vital but it cannot be at the expense of human interest or the lives of workers and their families,” he said.
At the same time, Solomon expressed his appreciation to the federal government as Budget 2021 which was tabled by Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz yesterday at the Parliament appeared to have comprehensively covered most problem areas impacted by the Covid-19, especially the B40 and M40 groups.
He noted Budget 2021 has provided varieties of basic needs to the population at the moment.
Solomon also noted the budget also covers the business community to a certain extent.
He pointed out that the budget has taken into account the hardship faced by the workers and other needy Malaysians.
“NUBE feels that to some length, this budget will be a realistic roadmap to reduce the inequality that has been existing all this while.
“We are particularly happy that billions have been allocated for retraining and reskilling of workers.
“It is imperative that the Finance Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry monitor and tighten all loopholes that could result in abuses and corruption when the money is dished out,” he outlined. —DayakDaily
