Harapan Youth demands pay slash for Petronas top brass

Summary

• Pakatan Harapan Youth wants the CEO to announce immediate cuts to his salary and annual bonuses.

• The wing also wants the allowances for the directors to be reviewed.

Following Petronas’ announcement of a 10 percent workforce reduction, Pakatan Harapan Youth has called for the national oil company’s leadership to share the burden.

Harapan Youth information chief Ammar Atan has urged Petronas president and CEO Tengku Taufik Tengku Aziz to lead by example by announcing immediate cuts to his own salary and annual bonuses.

He stressed that austerity measures should not be limited to lower-tier staff, but also be extended to the nine members of Petronas’ executive leadership.

Ammar also called for a review of the board of directors’ allowances in line with the company's financial outlook.

“Furthermore, the allowances of the board of directors should also be reviewed in line with Petronas’ potential financial performance,” he added.

Ammar further questioned the rationale behind maintaining costly corporate sponsorships while employees face retrenchment, urging the company to re-evaluate its spending priorities.

“Petronas must also reconsider all its corporate sponsorships, arguing that there is no need to spend millions of ringgit on sponsorships while the firm is forced to retrench employees,” he said.

He warned that until leadership compensation is transparently addressed, any effort to reduce staff numbers would appear inequitable.

“As long as these matters - especially the salaries and bonuses of top leadership - are not clarified to the public, Harapan Youth believes that the right-sizing exercise should not be carried out.

“This is not just a question of whether most of the workers to be laid off are on contract or not. This is a matter of fairness and shared responsibility,” he added.

Solve issue with Petros

Harapan Youth also urged both Petronas and Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros) to promptly resolve any ongoing disputes to avoid further damaging the national oil firm’s reputation.

“Petronas belongs to everyone, including the people of Sarawak who are citizens of Malaysia,” Ammar said.

On June 5, Tengku Taufik announced that Petronas would cut around 10 percent of its workforce due to difficult operating conditions, particularly the drop in global crude oil prices.

He stated that approximately 5,000 employees would be affected, with notifications to be issued in stages starting next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof later clarified that the downsizing move was prompted by global economic pressures and unrelated to issues with Petros.

Petronas layoffs due to global challenges, not Petros issue - Fadillah

Opposition slams govt 'squeezing' Petronas for RM32b amid layoffs

Bersatu: Petronas job losses affect all - contract or permanent

Petronas job cuts mainly affect contract workers - Anwar

Petronas not exiting Canada, group CEO reaffirms

Petronas to cut workforce by 10pct