MAS' wholesale sackings: MP accuses airline of circumventing labour laws

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 — Malaysia Airline  (MAS) is attempting to avoid compensating the employees it will retrench for its restructuring with its “cynical” termination of the entire workforce and rehiring the ones it will retain, a DAP federal lawmaker said today.

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong said that while retrenchments were not unusual, the announced termination of all MAS employees who will then be offered new contacts at the new entity, Malaysia Airline Bhd (MAB), was blatant manipulation of existing labour laws.

Liew also questioned the move, given that MAB’s owner is government-linked corporation Khazanah Nasional.

“MAS, and its owner Khazanah, is telling the whole country that the best way to sack workers is to shut down the current set-up without the necessary compensation via the conventional voluntary separation schemes,” Liew said in a statement today.

“If private companies were to follow MAS’ example, it would result in major economic havoc with massive unemployment.”

He then urged Khazanah not to victimise MAS workers for the financial woes saddling the airline owing to decades of alleged mismanagement that traces back to the days of Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli.

The Star reported today that over 8,000 MAS workers were now at risk of as the airline may widen its jobs cull beyond the initially reported 6,000 that it previously said was needed to trim its headcount to a “sustainable” 14,000.

The employees will learn their fate on Wednesday, when every worker other than newly appointed chief executive Christoph Mueller will be terminated, before possibly being offered new employment with MAB.

Staff retained will also get new remuneration package based on market rates, Mueller said.

The national carrier was delisted in August 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 this year.

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

The sovereign wealth fund later unveiled a 12-point turnaround plan for the national carrier, titled “Rebuilding A National Icon — The MAS Recovery Plan”, which includes transferring all MAS assets to the new entity.