PETALING JAYA, Aug 28 — The national union representing cabin crew of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) said today the body set up by its new sole owner has yet to reach out to staff that would be let go by the end of the month.

National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) secretary-general, Mohd Akram Osman said it has been three months since the announcement of the Corporate Development Centre (CDC), which was created by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the country’s sovereign wealth fund which is now the sole owner of the airline, and yet until today the staff has yet to hear from them.

“I urge those in charge of CDC to be more aware and responsible because the picture they had painted to the staff was as if they would be providing job opportunities.

“Those who had been laid off are in their 40s or 50s that don’t have other career opportunities.

“And CDC has been disappointing and some of them had gone out to look for jobs on their own,” he told reporters at Nufam’s office at the PJ Exchange here.

The centre’s chief executive officer Shahryn Azmi reportedly said CDC would start training courses for upskilling purposes as well as arranging job interviews for those looking for new jobs in June.

It is unclear if that has begun, and no reason was given if there had been any delay.

The union’s president Ismail Nasaruddin said in comparison, the airline’s rival and the largest budget airline in the region, Air Asia has since absorbed about 250 of former MAS staff.

“I have to laud Air Asia because they were the first to save them,” he said.

The union has a host of other grievances with MAS, including its decision to deduct five years when computing employees’ overall working period with the airline, for those who had taken forced unpaid leave as directed by the airline some years back.

The airline has also given MAS staff until September 1 to return their uniforms, employees’ identity cards, which the union claim was an insufficient time period given that the counter opened to facilitate the return process is understaffed. The union pointed out that many would not have the chance to return the items by the deadline, in time to get back their deposits by September 7.