Updated:Missing briefcase complicates bitter HSBC-MUBE dispute

 Updated 5 p.m. - Adds HSCS reaction - A banker's missing suitcase has complicated a bruising dispute between HSBC Bank and the Malta Union of Bank Employees (MUBE). The dispute was revealed by The Times earlier this week. The union this morning gave a timeline of its version of how the dispute developed, while adding developments related to the missing suitcase. It said that on August 16 it registered a trade dispute to address the bank's 'intransigent approach' to a restructuring process being proposed by the bank in its Wealth Management Section – a section of the bank that sells Investment products. On September 24 the union ordered industrial action at Wealth Management and the whole section of 50 employees went out on strike for two-and-a-half weeks. On October 8, the union unilaterally referred the case to the Industrial Tribunal since, it said, the bank was not willing to apply jointly with the union to accelerate the process. On the next day, it filed a request for a warrant for prohibitory injunction to safeguard the status quo and to counter a clear threat against dismissal after two female employees who, it said, were threatened with dismissal if they...