Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has denied it will not give full compensation to the 6,000 staff it will be laying off soon.

This comes after the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) said it was informed that MAS would set aside the first five years of an employee’s years of service from the compensation.

Explaining the matter, MAS said this only applied to employees who have had two or more contracts with the airline.

“In general, a MAS cabin crew will be offered a five-year contract upon hiring. After the five-year contract term expires, they may or may not subsequently be offered employment again,” the company said in an email response to Malaysiakini .

If there is a subsequent employment, the company said, it is guided by Regulation 3(2) of the Employment (Termination & Layoff Benefits) Regulations 1980 in determining if there is a break in years of service when calculating the number of years of service for the termination payment.

“Which in this case, if the gap between the subsequent employment and the previous employment does not exceed 30 days, the years of service will start from the initial fixed-term five-year contract hire date.

“Should the gap exceed 30 days, then there is a break and the years of service will start from the subsequent employment date,” said MAS.

Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin on Tuesday said that MAS had emailed employees that it will subtract the first five years of their service.

“This means that if the employee had worked for MAS for 10 years, his five years of service with MAS will be subtracted and he will only receive compensation for five years multiplied by one month’s salary,” Ismail was reported saying.

The 6,000 MAS employees who will be laid off, effective Sept 1, are expected to receive compensation from Sept 7.