No water concessionaire employees retrenched in takeover - Khalid

No employees from the three Selangor water concessionaires will be retrenched after the companies' water supply services have been taken over by Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, said Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

He said through the signing of the master agreement on Friday, which finalised the state's water industry restructuring, Air Selangor Sdn Bhd would take over the operations and maintenance of the water treatment plants as well as the water supply services from Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB) and Konsortium ABASS Sdn Bhd (Abass).

"In the takeover of these companies via equity ownership, no workers will have their services terminated under the restructuring exercise.

"We will acquire all equities of the companies. All existing employment and operations will continue. There is no retrenchment but there will be restructuring for greater efficiency and capacity.

"The acquisition of equities will not affect their services which would enable us to gain the confidence of employees of Syabas, PNSB and Abass to continue to serve the new company," he said before witnessing the signing of the master agreement between the federal government and the Selangor government, here.

The agreement was signed by Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, who represented the federal government, and State Secretary Datuk Mohammed Khusrin Munawi, on behalf of the state government, while Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB) was represented by its CEO Datuk Ahmad Faizal Abdul Rahman and Air Selangor Sdn Bhd by its CEO Suhaimi Kamaralzaman.

Abdul Khalid said with the taking over of the water concessions, the new company would also focus on upgrading of water pipes and reducing non-revenue water for better management efficiency.

"If we can manage the water assets well, we will sell shares to Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya residents so that the effort to return water rights to the people could succeed.

"With this, Selangor residents will become consumers and shareholders and the people can better monitor the management's capability," he said.