Pakatan lawmakers from all three parties have set aside their differences today to demand that Malaysia Airlines (MAS) stop laying off workers pending an investigation into their losses.

PAS' Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin ( photo ) said this is because the reason given by MAS to terminated employees were unacceptable.

"I have received many complaints from MAS staff [...] MAS used the excuse of (being unable to keep up with) competition as the reason to terminate the workers.

"I can't accept this excuse at all," he said in a press conference at the parliament lobby today.

As such he, together with PKR's Hulu Langat MP Abdullah Sani and DAP's Batu Gajah MP V Sivakumar want a Royal Commission of Inquiry or a Public Accounts Committee investigations to probe why MAS had actually made losses.

File written motion in Parliament

"Everyone knows MAS has been mismanaged. [...] so until an inquiry is made, the sackings must stop," Hanipa added.

He said he would file a written motion so that the fate of MAS' employees can be debated in Parliament next week.

MAS is undergoing a restructuring exercise which would result in about a third of its staff being axed in order to cut cost.

On Tuesday, the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) threatened to go on strike if MAS does not retract all termination letters within 48 hours.