The Kuala Lumpur High Court today postponed the hearing to decide on the Director-General of Trade Union's (DGTU) power to call for elections in the crisis-ridden National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE).

Judge Raus Sharif postponed the case to Aug 3 after Zainur Zakaria, counsel for the NUBE faction led by Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin, asked for more time to respond to the application filed by the union's caretaker committee.

The committee, through the assistance of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), is seeking a declaration that the DGTU has the power to call for a fresh election to resolve NUBE's leadership problem.

Zainur said they will be filing an affidavit soon.

"Of course, we are saying that the DGTU is not empowered to conduct an election," he added.

MTUC support

The Human Resources Ministry has thrown its support behind the MTUC-brokered peace deal, one of which is to get a court declaration empowering the DGTU to conduct fresh elections and end the three-year factionalism in NUBE.

R Sivarasa, who represents the other NUBE faction led by Abdul Jalil Hamid, said all other NUBE-related matters have been re-assigned dates in October and November.

"Once this matter (DGTU's power) is decided, the rest would fall in place," he said when contacted later.

Muhammad Fauzi's group is also appealing against last month's Court of Appeal decision upholding a High Court decision that declared both factions as illegal.

The 20-member caretaker committee was elected from among 2,000 ordinary NUBE members at a special conference organised by the MTUC early this year in Petaling Jaya.

The court declaration was necessary for a new exco because the term of office for officials sitting in both NUBE factions have expired.