The HSBC strike will be extended to today unless the bank comes up with concrete counter-proposals and accepts the dialogue invitation, the President of the Malta Union of Bank Employees, William Chetcuti said yesterday.

HSBC staff has been on strike for the last three working days - Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and today is set to be the fourth day of action as the MUBE is seeing no breakthrough in the negotiations.

Mr Portelli said, in fact, that the situation at present is a complete stalemate, with the bank refusing to sit around the discussion table.

Speaking at a press conference this morning, Mr Portelli said the union had always enjoyed a good relationship with the bank. Trouble arose when HSBC decided to refuse a collective agreement that was in its final stages of negotiation in August 2014. The bank, he said, had unilaterally decided to refuse the package mainly from the financial aspect.

Mr Portelli said HSBC had adopted a trend that was a threat to collective bargaining when it had proposed a pay rise in the middle of the negotiations, as if there was no ongoing process. He described dialogue as being one-sided and said the bank had chosen to send foreigners to Malta to do its bidding. This, he said, could lead to an ugly precedent if it is copied by other companies in Malta.

He also argued that this was a different scenario than usual because the bank was more interested in the spat it has with the union rather than in resolving the issue, thus having all its customer services restored.

The MUBE president said the union felt sorry for the bank's clients but insisted that HSBC employees also had a right to fight for better conditions and pay.

The decision to step up the industrial action into a full-blown strike was taken by an almost unanimous decision, and this showed that the bank staff's demands were justified.

The MUBE represents around 95% of the bank's 1,100-strong workforce.

Apart from the collective agreement there are other issues, like unacknowledged excessive overtime, said Mr Portelli, who claimed that some bank managers worked up to 8 or 9 hours of overtime a week, interfering with their work-life balance.  

Josef Figallo, the spokesman of MUBE's group committee, said the bank wanted the union to suspend all directives before any discussions would take place. The union is insisting, however, that it will not discuss anything until the bank comes up with its counter-proposals.

The MUBE, he said, had given the bank time and only resorted to industrial action seven months after talks on the collective agreement stalled.

A few days ago the union made the "fair proposal" for both sides to revert back to the August 2014 positions and use that as a starting point. "It would have been a win-win situation because we were both happy with the way things were back then. However the bank has not accepted this proposal."

Charles Galea, Secretary of the General Workers Union's Professionals, Finance and Services Section, appealed to the public to understand that HSBC employees could not just give up and quit because they were fighting for their future.

The GWU, which represents a small number of bank employees, is taking part in the discussions in solidarity with the MUBE, he said.

Mr Galea said the unions never intended to order a full strike but were left with no choice after the management threatened the workers with lock-out.

Asked if the union will persist with the strike, Mr Portelli said the union members had voted to extend the strike throughout the week if need be, but decisions were being taken on a day-to-day basis.

"Things could change if there are any developments but, for the time being the situation is a complete stalemate." He said he did not exclude seeing signs of support from other unions and said there could be developments after the Office of the Prime Minister on Tuesday offered to mediate.

Mr Portelli said HSBC is known to be an aggressively expansionist bank but he would not be surprised if it announced some form of downsizing in the near future.

He noted, however, that HSBC has insisted repeatedly that it is here to stay and intends to grow further. 

In other countries, HSBC had had its way but MUBE is not willing to give up the fight. 

In a circular to employees yesterday morning, the bank said it advised both the Malta Union of Bank Employees and the General Workers' Union that it had registered a trade dispute to safeguard its "rightful interests".

The communication, quoted by Times of Malta, was signed by CEO Mark Watkinson.

He said: "I recognise that these are very challenging times for everyone. However we have a duty of care towards our customers who provide us with our living... Ordering directives for industrial action has detrimental effects on customer confidence and affects our long term business in Malta."

Mr Watkinson told the staff the bank received MUBE's counter proposals on March 30 and responded to them on the same day.

The union's proposals were the first since October last year. He said the bank had offered to meet the union on April 8 after Easter.

"We have never received a response to the offer."