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PETALING JAYA: The National Union of Flight Attendants of Malaysia (Nufam) harshly criticized Malindo Air’s announcement of further staff reductions, stating that the government assistance the troubled airline has received should have been sufficient to prevent further cuts in jobs.
In an internal memo to company staff seen by FMT, Malindo Air CEO Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri said there would be further cuts “in the coming days” in another cost-cutting exercise in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. .
While Mushafiz did not provide figures, it was previously reported that the company was looking to cut around 2,200 jobs from its current workforce of 3,200.
“Is the airline not receiving government assistance?” Nufam asked.
“Nufam realized that Socso had also paid Malindo about RM3 million under the Employee Retention Program (ERP),” Nufam said in a statement, adding that the airline should be able to retain the majority of its workers until the middle of next year. .
“The management of Malindo Airways seems to use the most drastic way of reducing its workers. However, is the airline already insolvent or bankrupt?
“These problems need to be mitigated before the airline decides to lay off these 2,000 workers.”
Noting that Malindo had already put many of its workers on long-term leave until next July, Nufam said that most of Malindo’s workers had not received their wages since June.
In the memo, Mushafiz said the impact of the pandemic on the airline sector had had a “chilling effect” on Malindo’s revenue, which is currently only 10% of pre-pandemic figures.
Noting that it had already implemented many “drastic steps” to reduce costs, such as reducing staffing, suspending hiring and suspending assignments and other claims, Mushafiz said efforts were insufficient to overcome the pandemic’s prolonged impact on the industry. .
“Given the ongoing nature of this crisis, we find that we must optimize our workforce to ensure the sustainability of the company.
“Having exhausted all previous initiatives, we are left with no choice but to conduct a downsizing exercise,” Mushafiz said in his memo dated October 28.
“In the next few days, human resources (HR) will notify affected employees about severance pay benefits, including the company’s asset transfer process.”
In April, Mushafiz said the airline had asked 70% of its staff to take leave without pay. However, the following month, the company had reportedly offered its employees to take a long-term, one-year unpaid voluntary leave.
In June, about 100 employees filed a claim with the Labor Relations Department for wrongful termination after claiming their contracts were prematurely terminated during the motion control order (MCO).
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