Opposition MPs call for PAC to probe MAS

Several Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarians today urged the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to probe the cause of losses suffered by Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

Hanipa Maidin (PAS-Serdang) said an investigation should be carried out to find out the culprit behind the company’s failure to make profit all this while, until it had to retrench its staff.

“Until an investigation is conducted, all retrenchment process should be put on hold.

“We support the act by the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) and urge the government to consider the picket by Nufam… because it is their right,” he told newsmen at the Parliament lobby today.

He said the reason given by MAS to terminate its staff was questionable and cannot be accepted.

“Everyone knows that MAS had been mismanaged. This shows that there is no clear commitment from MAS to

find the root cause of its losses…the staff became the victims,” Hanipa said.

He stressed that losses incurred by MAS stemmed from mismanagement and nothing else.

“They need to stop retrenching people until PAC can identify who’s responsible for the losses,” he added.

With Hanipa were Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid (PKR-Kuala Langat) and V. Sivakumar (DAP-Batu Gajah) who also called for the probe against MAS by PAC.

On June 1, about 6,000 MAS employees were told that they would not be receiving an employment letter to continue their services with the national carrier.

Of the 20,000 termination letters issued, only 14,000 staff were offered employment under the MAS NewCo, helmed by new CEO Christoph Mueller.

Nufam had opposed the move, urged MAS to recall the termination letters to the 6,000 staff and threatened to go on strike if they failed to do so.

Nufam president, Ismail Nasaruddin had also said that the retrenched employees needed to be given their jobs back.