SUBANG JAYA, June 2 — The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) wants Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to put a stop to its retrenchment exercise and withdraw the new contracts offered to certain employees, alleging of disparity and “injustice” in the terms and conditions provided.
Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin accused the struggling airline of “exploiting” its staff, having terminated some 6,000 employees, including many seasoned workers, while the younger, more inexperienced staff were kept.
“We are asking MAS to retract all conditions laid to employees,” he said during a press conference here today.
“They retain the young, inexperienced ones more than the senior ones, they turned away the middle age ones. They only retain a handful who are receptive to their terms,” he added.
He also questioned the airline’s selection process, claiming that many experienced staff with good track records were also fired.
He added that even those who were retained under new contracts were not safe from retrenchment as many were only offered short-term deals.
“We also have an issue of short-term contracts, three months up to December, up to March next year, why those reemployed into the new company are also only given short-term contracts?
“They have said that they will do away with another 2,500 employees, that is why I said even if (MAS staff) accept these contracts, they will not be secure,” he said.
He warned that Nufam may take legal action as a next step if MAS does not address the concerns raised, including the discrepancies in the reemployment letters and the insecurities in the short-term contracts offered, adding that they will also raise their grouses with the prime minister.
“Nufam will continue to protest and maybe file a trade dispute.
“We will wait for more evidence reports from employees; we will raise our objections to the prime minister because promises and claims to provide jobs to those terminated is unclear,” he said.
MAS yesterday served all its 20,000 employees termination notices effective June 1, but offered 14,000 reemployment under new contracts.
This was the airline’s last ditch attempt of getting the company back in the black after its new chief executive Christoph Mueller said yesterday that MAS was “technically bankrupt.”
News wire Reuters reported yesterday that the carrier said its new legal entity is Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB), replacing the previous Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS), with Mueller promising to unveil a full corporate rebranding in the future.
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 last year.
