Malaysia Airlines Employees' Union (Maseu) staff today renewed its collective agreement with the airline's management, but will continue to press for the resolution of a number of sticking points.

The union has given the management until the end of this year to resolve these points, failing which it plans to take the matter to court.

When contacted, Maseu executive secretary Mustafa Maarof said an understanding was reached between the union and MAS to continue discussion of the terms and conditions involving female cabin crew, haj leave and compassionate leave.

In this, he disagreed with certain comments by MAS corporate services senior general manager Dr Mohamadon Abdullah, published in the New Straits Times today.

Mohamadon refuted the union's allegation that the management had violated Article 8 (2) of the Federal Constitution for discriminating against female cabin crew on the basis of gender and the Employment Act.

He said MAS was acting within the contractual bounds of the collective agreement. During negotiations with Maseu, the management outlined in detail why the age-limit was imposed on female cabin crew, adding that the union "accepted the facts, although not happily".

"We are not saying that women are not capable of performing well after they reach 40, but we have to seriously look into the commercial value.

"Let's face reality. Customers prefer to be served by young, demure and pretty stewardesses, especially Asian ladies. If we do not put an age-limit, then how are other young women going to get an opportunity to fly?" he said in the report.

'Be fair'

In response, Mustafa said: "We want to make it clear that he only addressed the retirement age issue. We had in fact listed three demands to improve the collective agreement (for female cabin crew)."

"We have had a long battle on these issues since early this year. It is not fair of him to label (female cabin crew members) as having 'commercial value'. They should be treated as human beings, not commodities. Please give fair comment to the issue."

The collective agreement, due to be signed 13 months ago, was held back over what the union considered to be discriminatory treatment of female cabin crew in relation to their retirement age, maternity benefits and right to bear more than two children.

MAS currently retires its female cabin crew at between 40 and 45 years, much earlier than the male crew retirement age of 55.

Female cabin crew are grounded the moment they are pregnant, in addition to being denied pay, medical benefits, or allowance for seven months of their pregnancy. MAS also reserves the right to terminate the services of any female cabin crew if she has more than two children.

This contrasts with provisions in the Employment Act 1955, which guarantees maternity allowance for up to five children.

In addition, Article 11 of the UN Convention of the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw), of which Malaysia is signatory, states that women must be granted pay during maternity.

The union demands that improvements be made to raise the retirement age beyond 45, provide at least basic salary to pregnant and grounded female crew, and increase the maternity right to bear more than two children.

"What's ridiculous is that we have been informed by some staff that their names have been deleted from the system because they are pregnant. This means they are not even eligible for any staff privileges such as cheap flights," Mustafa said.

"We hope that management will be fair. The same collective agreement has been in place for 20 years because every single time we requested change, the management has rejected it. All we want is for MAS to meet some of our demands and improve the terms."

The union has been told that the Malaysian Trades Union Congress has taken up the issue with the National Advisory Council and Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn.

"We were informed that the director-general of labour Ismail Abdul Rahim is looking into the matter, but we have not heard anything officially from him," added Mustafa.