|
In one of the most successful
approaches to harmonisation of
labour necessitated by corporate
merger of companies, Northport
(Malaysia) Bhd (NMB) brought
together three different schemes of
services to a single scheme
reflecting an unprecedented level of
cooperation and trust between the
management and the staff.
Under a collective agreement (CA)
signed recently all non-executive
employees of Northport (Malaysia)
Bhd - an entity that emerged out the
merger between two port operating
companies, namely Klang Port
Management Sdn Bhd and Klang
Container Terminal Bhd - will be
governed by a single service scheme
agreement.,
The agreement on the harmonisation
of the various schemes was signed
between the management of Northport
and the Northport (Malaysia) Bhd
Staff Union (NBBSU).
The management has also signed an
addendum to the existing CA with
NMBSU to incorporate the changes
required.
With the reconciliation, the entire
2,900 non-executive employee of NMB
will be placed under NMBSU with
single terms of employment and
salary compared with three different
CA prior to the harmonization of
collective agreement.
The negotiation and reconciliation
exercise of harmonization of three
major in-house unions into single
acceptable common service scheme had
been the most challenging task since
the merger took place.
Commenting on the successful outcome
of the agreement, the chairman of
NCXB Holdings, Tan Sri Datuk Seri
(Dr) Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, said
despite that the challenging nature
of the negotiation process the
management team headed by the
managing director/CEO of Northport
(Malaysia), Basheer Hassan Abdul
Kader, managed to solve the issue
without any industrial disharmony in
less than a year after formation of
NMB on November 2001.
Ahmad Sarji said the harmonization
process would give greater
flexibility to the management to
transferred staff or re-deployed
within the company to meet changing
operational needs in order to better
the level of efficiency as demanded
by customers.
"Furthermore, the whole process was
done through internal resources with
co-operation of all parties
concerned. Notable to mention was
the effort with deep commitment and
sincerity to work out a winning
formula among all parties should be
welcomed, "said Ahmad Sarji.
He added that with the completion of
the official signing ceremony,
customers could look forward to a
higher and better level of
efficiency and performance service
at Northport with its total of 26
berths.
The Chairman of the NCB Holdings Bhd
said with the positive change of
employee attitude, spirit of
understanding and co-operation
towards achieving industrial
goodwill and harmony port users and
particularly customers of Northport
can be assured that the company is
better prepared in facing the stiff
competition and challenges of the
21st Century maritime Industry. |
