The government will find ways to assist the affected Malaysia Airlines (MAS) employees under the national carrier restructuring exercise to be absorbed in other workforce, said Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Jaem.

“I don’t want to comment further except to say that I’m sure the government has taken into consideration the workers who might be laid off,” he said when commenting on reports that MAS would be terminating its entire workforce to start afresh.

It was reported that the service of 20,000 Malaysia Airlines employees would be terminated but two-thirds would be rehired by a new airline.

The exercise is said to ease the migration of the existing operations of MAS into a new company, MAS Bhd, which will begin operations on Sept 1.

“I believe the government will able to find a way to absorb them to other employment,” said Riot when met by reporters after launching the national-level Social Security Organisation (Socso) Safe Ride Campaign 201 in Sepang today.

He said Malaysia Airlines’ newly-appointed chief executive officer Christoph Mueller had also engaged with MAS’ employees association in two separate meetings after he assumed the post earlier this month in relation to the exercise.

- Bernama