SHAH ALAM, July 6 — Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) must clarify its baffling recruitment drive after controversially firing some 6,000 workers last month following a company-wide revamp, PAS’ Hanipa Maidin demanded today.

The federal opposition lawmaker said he had received a complaint from an airline workers’ union that alleged foul play in the purported recruitment exercise.

“They are saying that MAS is offering jobs to outsiders to work with MAS. How could MAS retrench 6,000 workers to downsize its workforce, but at the same time give out offer letters?” the Serdang MP asked at a news conference here.

Hanipa said the union member who wished to remain anonymous found out about the exercise after sighting a recruitment advertisement on the flag carrier’s internal email system, which purported to offer potential recruits the chance to be an “ambassador” in a new “national icon”.

Hanipa said his source claimed the airline had advertised for customer service officers, among several other positions.

MAS served all its 20,000 employees termination notices effective June 1, but offered 14,000 reemployment under new contracts.

In April, controlling shareholder Khazanah Nasional Berhad said the downsizing at MAB cannot be avoided if the new national carrier is to be sustainable.

This came after six worker unions demanded in March that top officials of the carrier, previously known as Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) and Khazanah be removed in place of the 6,000 workers that will be made redundant in the flag carrier’s restructuring.

The national carrier was delisted in August 2014 after sovereign wealth fund Khazanah offered to buy out minority shareholders for a total of RM1.38 billion to restructure MAS, which suffered two air disasters within six months of each other.

The total takeover will cost Khazanah RM6 billion after the twin tragedies of MH370 and MH17 had threatened to overwhelm MAS’s finances.