The reason why Malaysia Airlines (MAS) could not provide ground job opportunities for their pregnant stewardesses is because of the cost factor, the airline's employees union claimed today.

Malaysia Airline System Employees Union (Maseu) president Alias Aziz said he was informed that it has been MAS guidelines to minimise operational costs and it would be too costly to keep pregnant stewardesses on the pay roll as there were too many of them.

The airlines has 1,711 female stewardesses out of 2,950 flight attendants.

"The management has always ruled that it is not feasible to accommodate every stewardess's request to be on ground job when she is pregnant," Alias said.

MAS has explained that because of the large number of female flight attendants, it was not possible to provide ground job opportunities for them all, he added.

Stewardesses are told to go on unpaid leave from the moment they declared they are pregnant to the management until they have given birth, as stated in the collective agreement (2002).

Support from NGOs

The Maseu chief was commenting on the changes made to the terms and conditions which were discriminatory against the airline's female cabin crew that has prompted protests from women non-governmental organisations.

He called for continued support from non-governmental organisations in order to make gender bias a non-issue in the airline industry in Malaysia.

On the collective agreement signed between MAS and the Maseu, Alias said it will be reviewed every three years. The present agreement will expire on Aug 31 this year.

Maseu was established in 1980 and has almost 9000 members to date.