AWARD

Jalaldin Hussain:

Background

[1] The case was first mentioned on 3 December 2016 in Court 22 and was transferred to this court on 16 March 2018 upon the direction of the learned President of the Industrial Court. Hearing commenced on 22 March 2018 and was completed on 12 July 2018. The Bank filed its written submissions on 27 August 2018 and reply on 18 September 2018 while the Union filed their submission on 27 August 2018 and reply on 8 October 2018.

Brief Facts

[2] The dispute concerns the position of junior officers of the Bank who were previously engaged under fixed term contracts. They were appointed as Tele Collector or Administrators (Secured and Unsecured) Collections prior to them being converted to Junior Officers. As Tele Collector, they were under a fixed-term contract renewable through a period of 6 or 12 months. Union's witness, Puan Rajeswari (UW2) testified that she was appointed on a one-year contract which was subsequently renewed once before she became a Junior Officer. UW3, Puan Latifah was on a six-month fixed-term contract for a period of one year before she became a Junior Officer. UW4 and UW5 too were also on a fixed-term contract renewable every six months. All of them testified that they were made permanent emplo