One of the former staff of PKNS Holdings whose contract was unexpectedly terminated yesterday has lashed out at the state-linked company, likening their treatment to that of animals.

"Who is responsible for us? Is this how you treat us? We are not animals," former Marketing Division head Aliff Aiman ( right ) cried out at a press conference today.

Aliff is one of some 20 contract workers affected by the 24-hour notice served on them by the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) subsidiary that their contracts would not be renewed.

An emotional Aliff said his former employer had acted unfairly on those brought in to increase the level of PKNS’ professionalism in the first place.

"We are humans, what’s more we are all Muslims. Even non-Muslim companies would not do this," he said at the Industrial Relations Department.

He said he, alongside the other terminated staff, had gone to meet with the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) and the ministry to study the legal options for redress they could take.

Livelihoods taken away

Meanwhile, Rina Sharif, who was, till yesterday, PKNS group human resources division head, said 19 staff received their termination notice yesterday and that a further 19 would suffer the same fate soon.

Rina said some employees some still have six months to two years left to serve out their contracts when it was ended.

"I was the HR (head) for 18 years. Where has a contract been terminated like this. This is not a 24-hour notice of termination, it was immediate.

"The jobs were the staff’s livelihood," she told Malaysiakini when approached.

Yesterday, PKNS Holdings terminated the contracts of some 20 workers, giving them a 24-hour notice.

Meanwhile, PKNS in a statement today said the contracts were terminated in a "restructuring operation" due to redundancies between the contract and permanent staff.