BOMBSHELL – KHAZANAH UNDER NAJIB REGIME GOOD? KICK THEM OUT – AIRLINE WORKERS UNION REVEAL MALAYSIA AIRLINES SET TO ‘LOSE RM500 MILLION IN NEXT 6 MONTHS, PLUS ANOTHER RM500 MILLION’
1 October 2018 Print page
SHAH ALAM: Vocal aviation workers’ union Nufam has urged Putrajaya to purge Khazanah Nasional board members in Malaysia Airlines (MAS), saying the national airline’s problems are far from over following the sovereign wealth fund’s takeover of the company.
Ismail Nasaruddin, who heads Nufam or the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia, warned
that the government should decide quickly, adding that MAS could lose another RM1 billion by next year.
“Our financial analyst has given us a very clear financial structure to say that the airline will lose RM500 million in the next six months, plus another RM500 million,” he told a press conference today.
Describing Khazanah as a “capitalist head”, Ismail said it had done more damage to Malaysia Airlines.
Khazanah took over the airlines in the aftermath of the twin tragedies of MH370 and MH17, and soon embarked on a RM6 billion restructuring exercise which saw thousands of workers being laid off.
Nufam had then opposed the plan, saying the airline should be managed by aviation experts and not Khazanah.
Ismail today said that MAS lost RM3 billion in the last three years.
He also questioned the company for sacking some 6,000 workers, saying it was now forced to rehire them.
“They are rehiring the sacked 6,000 workers. They are short of pilots and crew members.
“It is very sad to us to say that, after three years of the so-called plan to restructure MAS (nothing has changed).
“After three years, you saw the figures. They have actually tried to hide from the public. No one knows,” he said.
He said members of the board of directors were still reaping huge benefits including salaries of RM100,000 a month.
Ismail said Nufam had given documented proof to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to show that “MAS is still leaking like nobody’s business”.
Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin.
“MAS is in dire straits. Workers are complaining there is no increment. Every year they are working 1,000 hours. They cannot function on board. They are overworked but with minimum pay,” he added.
He also accused MAS of neglecting families of employees, including those affected by the MH370 and MH17 tragedies.
At the press conference today, the wife of an MH370 crew member said she still considered her husband a MAS employee, despite a clause saying one is no longer an active employee after two years of absence from work.
“My husband did not resign. The rest of them didn’t resign. They went to work, but they never came back,” said Jacquita Gonzales, wife of Patrick Gomez.
“He did not report sick. He just went to work for the company and never came back at all. He is on overtime now. For 24 hours. They have all worked overtime for four years, so they deserve something.”
She said the company had cut off all benefits.
“After it was declared that the plane had plunged into the Indian Ocean, it was bye bye. That is not fair,” she said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, and remains one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
Malaysia called off the search last May.
Meanwhile, widower Mohamed Affendi Khairuddin, whose late wife Mastura Mustafa was a flight attendant on the ill-fated MH17 flight that was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014, also voiced out a similar complaint.
Affendi said no compensation had been paid, and family members were given the runaround.
“One moment they say they will pay. Another moment they say no. But you see, we are not after monetary gains. We want justice for the deceased.”
Source : https://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/?p=137690