MAS employees urged to change mindset

Associate Professor Dr Azmi Hassan from the School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said these employees have to accept the fact that this must be done.

Under the new work environment, the work culture would be based on the key performance index (KPI) of each employee which would then determine the KPI of each department.

Christoph Mueller, Chief Executive of MAS, who will assume the same position with Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB), is planning for 10 subsidiaries and their performance would be gauged by their respective profit and loss accounts.

KPI will be fixed for each subsidiary to control cost, record performance and profits so as not to burden MAB.

"The transformation is from one extreme to another, it’s not easy to carry out.

"We sympathise with the employees, but, in doing so we must bear in mind that national interest comes first as Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah) has injected billions of ringgit in the exercise and it is public money.

"So, they must sacrifice too," he told Bernama.

To a question on re-hiring MAS staff, Dr Azmi agreed that those offered re-employment were very lucky indeed as the new MAS, which will be operational on Sept 1, had given priority to former employees and not outsiders.

"It’s true when you re-hire former employees, they bring along with them their work experience. To date, Mueller has said that 98 percent of them have accepted job offers with new MAS.

"So, this indicates that they were probably offered on the same terms as previously. So, I don't think the new employees were betrayed," said Dr Azmi.

What is important is their valuable experience and they are coming to the new entity with that experience, said Dr Azmi, adding that a new work culture, mindset change and perception would benefit MAB, which according to Mueller, would be able to deliver profits in 2018.

As to why MAS incurred losses after losses despite several restructuring exercises and billions of ringgit in capital injection in the past, Dr Azmi said the main constraint for MAS then was the management and employees thought of themselves as an extension of the government and not as a commercial entity.

"If there is a problem, they think the government will bail them out. So, now MAS Bhd has to operate as a very competitive and innovative commercial entity which must meet the KPIs set," he added.

"I am sure the 14,000 who were re-employed realise that they were almost terminated but are lucky to have been re-hired by the new company.

"So, this is a calling for them to change, that they cannot operate like before and must give their best as a commercial entity," he added.

Dr Azmi also welcomed Mueller's appointment to steer MAB to regain its lost glory given his expertise in turning around two ailing airlines which almost went bust.

"I am confident the new employees with the new company and their previous experience, can be synergised with the rest in MAS now," he said.

Dr Azmi also pointed out that it was important for the new MAS to be free of political interference and that its 100 percent fate must be placed in Mueller who should be given a free hand to turnaround the company which technically almost went bankrupt.

He said the next two years was very critical for MAS as the company was still incurring losses.