Four unions in Sabah and Sarawak today declared their full support for the MAS restructuring plan and for Christoph Mueller, the chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB), the company replacing Malaysian Airline System Berhad (MAS).

The four unions are the Airlines Transport Workers Union of Sabah, Airline Workers Union of Sarawak, Sarawak Executive Staff Committee and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (Sarawak Division).

At a joint press conference in Kuching today, they said they felt “very encouraged” with the approach and diligent manner of the restructuring team led by Khazanah Nasional and Mueller.

“It is important to manage this in a humane, dignified and fair manner.

“We want our new airline to fly ahead, not just with a clear vision but with a clear conscience.”

The Airlines Transport Workers Union of Sabah was represented by its president Awang Musa Awang Kassim, while the Airline Workers Union of Sarawak by its secretary Lim Swee Seng.

The Sarawak Executive Staff Committee was led by its president Abdul Rahman Hassan and the Sarawak MTUC, by its secretary Andrew Lo.

Awang Musa said there were about 1,200 MAS employees in Sabah and Sarawak but less than 20 percent would be laid off while nationwide, some 6,000 employees would be laid off in a staggered manner.

The four unions said they would work closely with Mueller whom they said had very good understanding of the issues affecting MAS.   

“We have full confidence in him leading the national airline in these challenging times and in addressing the previous mismanagement head on.

“We want to get down to serious, hard work to make sure the restructuring succeeds for our national airline to take proudly to the skies again.

“Hence, we are against the plan by the National Union of Flight Attendants (Nufam) to strike as we view this as a self-defeating and self-centred approach, while we want to preserve industry harmony,” they added.

Meanwhile, Lo said politicians should stay out of the restructuring plan for it to succeed.

Under the restructuring exercise , all employees whose services are terminated (including those offered re-employment) will get termination benefits in accordance with the labour law or up to 0.55 times the monthly salary per year of service.

Those who are not offered re-employment will get up to 1.5 months’ salary for each year of service.

The unions said about 98 percent of the employees nationwide had agreed to the re-employment offer.

- Bernama