Employees of Malayan Bank (Maybank) Group are starting the New Year with a new paycheck, after the group management announced a 10 percent salary hike with the signing of its unions’ Collective Agreement (CA). The increase is noted to be one of the highest salary adjustments for employees in the Malaysian banking industry, New Straits Times reports.

According to the new CA which is valid for the period from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020, Maybank class one officers (AMCO) and Association of Maybank Executives (AME), the bank’s in-house unions representing executives to senior executive level and junior officer level, can expect to receive a 10 percent salary adjustment.

Besides the salary rise, the CA also includes an increase of up to 30 percent Personal Accident and 25 percent Term Life insurance coverage, which will further support the employees and their families during unfortunate events.

This is the first time in which AMCO and AME had a joint signing with the management.

“I am grateful for the strong partnership we have between the unions, employers, and industry-level alliances. The mutual respect, common goals, high integrity and strong values shared will continue to anchor this partnership and lead us towards stronger collaboration in the future,” said Group Chief Human Capital Officer, Nora Manaf in a statement.

“This collective agreement is also a reflection of Maybank’s commitment to remain true to our founding principles which is to uphold the welfare of the employees who have contributed immensely to the growth of the organisation.”

As part of the efforts to drive home ownership for employees and in light of the escalating property prices in major towns, Maybank Malaysia also announced a review on the staff housing loan benefit. The group plans to reduce the staff housing loan interest rates from 3.5 percent to two percent for all employees for existing and new loans. The policy is set to take effect in 2019.

This will complement the existing scheme where employees earning RM3,000 and below are eligible for interest free loans for the first RM100,000 on their housing loans from Maybank. Additionally, the quantum of the staff housing loan will be increased by a minimum of 43 percent from the existing amount. This policy, however, will differ based on the employees’ job grade but once again makes Maybank providing one of the lowest interest rates in the industry.

This marks AMCO’s 10th and AME’s 9th CA, respectively.

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