Ministry to care for MAS workers, PERDASAMA supports revival plan.

PUTRAJAYA: THE Human Resources Ministry will monitor Malaysia Airlines’ recovery plan closely, especially on the welfare of its 6,000 employees who would be affected by job cuts, its minister, Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem, said.

He added that Khazanah Nasional Bhd had briefed the ministry on the airlines’ workforce prior to announcing the RM6 billion recovery plan.

Riot said he was satisfied with
the recommendations made in the discussion with Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar.

“There were three recommendations. The first is the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS). Secondly, workers will be reskilled to ensure that they can be employed in other companies, and lastly, a migration of workers to other government-linked companies,” he said after presenting the Recognition of Prior Learning skills certificate to 140 workers from diverse career backgrounds.

Riot said the national carrier would take care of the welfare of the workers and ensure that their transition would be smooth.

The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) said the 6,000 job cuts could not be achieved in a short period if the employees did not take the VSS.

Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin said the union did not want to see any retrenchment and hoped that the restructuring would be fruitful and could be settled amicably.

 The 12-point recovery plan unveiled on Friday entails the creation of a new company, NewCo, to house a rejuvenated MAS, which would see a 30 per cent reduction in workforce aside from migrating to proper work practices and contracts.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the recovery plan would not be complete if it did not involve the restructuring of the airlines’ operations and business. He said the plan only involved a financial restructuring.

Nur Jazlan said the national aviation policy must be looked at holistically because, while it helped to strengthen MAS, it should not jeopardise other airlines operating in the country.

The Malay Businessmen and Industrialist Association of Malaysia (Perdasma) has backed the recovery plan and hoped that the strategies would return the national carrier to its former glory.

Perdasama vice-president Datuk Naim Mohamad said the association was pleased that a solid plan was in place but warned that it would not be successful without a complete analysis of the present aviation policies.

“The setting up of the Aviation Commission will be a right move to regulate and develop the aviation sector in line with international best practices.”

He said the proposed Aviation Commission could look into productive planning of routes, adding that airlines should adhere to the regulations.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress hoped that MAS would consider retrenchment of contract and foreign workers first when cutting jobs.