Union opposes outsider at SCIB helm
About 30 representatives of Siam City Bank's (SCIB) labour union yesterday rallied at Government House, the Bank of Thailand and the Council for National Security to oppose the appointment of an outsider as bank president.
The campaign against picking an outsider started a few weeks ago when the bank began the process of selecting a new president from candidates inside and outside the bank. The two candidates in the running are Chulakorn Singhakowin, an outsider who is a former president of Bank of Asia, which merged with the United Overseas Bank (Thai), and Lersuk Chuladesa, SCIB's first senior executive vice president. The bank's board of directors has reportedly submitted its choice of the new president to the Bank of Thailand. There have also been rumours that Lersuk was chosen but rejected by the central bank, which has asked the bank to reconsider its decision. However, the name of the new president has yet to be announced officially. Jariya Vejabhuti, chairman of SCIB's labour union, told reporters after meeting an official of the Financial Institutions Development Fund, a major shareholder, that the bank's union would like an insider to be the next president. She did not name the insider. "We are not against Khun Chulakorn, but we're against an outsider. A prominent outsider, Khun Chulakorn would come to the bank with the objective of mergers. We've seen that when he was at Bank of Asia. The bank was merged with UOB, and the staff were adversely affected," she said. Jariya believes an insider would deal with staff properly. She said the union also questioned why after the selection process had been done, it had taken such a long time to make an official announcement. She questioned whether there had been any intervention from authorities in the bank's selection of the new president. Asked what the union's next move would be if Chulakorn was picked to run Siam City Bank, she said the union would campaign more. "If the staff won't accept his policies, he cannot achieve his goal," she said. According to its petition to the prime minister, the union has asked whether it is true that the central bank has already made its own choice of SCIB president. If so, the union said, the selection cannot have been transparent.
Anoma Srisukkasem
The Nation
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