Its general secretary, J Solomon, said the union needs to provide effective service and assistance to its members who are also frontliners, especially during the lockdown.

However, the ministry’s department of trade union affairs informed NUBE that it would not issue any travel permission letter and told the union to get a “one-off permission letter” for a limited period from the police for the purpose of salary payment, he said.

“When we referred the matter to the police, they advised us to obtain travel permission from the human resources ministry.

“This comes as trade unions, including NUBE, are not regulated by police but come under the department of trade union affairs and the human resources ministry.

“The scope of NUBE’s duties is not just limited to providing salaries to NUBE employees. There is more than that. NUBE believes that the department and the ministry do not understand this aspect,” Solomon said in a statement today.

He added that the attitude shown by the department and the ministry showed that they did not care about the welfare of union members in the B40 and M40 groups.