KUALA LUMPUR – The government should put aside its plan to impose fines on MYAirline Sdn Bhd and focus on helping the victims of the situation instead, said the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam).
Its president Ismail Nasaruddin said for now, the regulatory bodies must first help MYAirline employees who are the victims of the airline’s suspension, saying that the government must do anything it takes to ensure that the airline does not shut down.
“Don’t simply shut the airline down as many jobs will be at risk. MYAirline board of directors must come forward and be held accountable should they want to continue to run its business.
“There is still hope for a better approach to be used in order to mitigate these issues. MYAirline is not made solely of one person. There are many individuals in the company who are capable of rescuing the airline. Do something now.
“Those who are responsible for setting up the airline business should be equally held responsible for this crisis and that they must now fix the problem,” he said in a statement today.
He also stressed that the authorities must not be influenced by certain political motives when making decisions, after allegations surfaced accusing the airline’s shareholders and board of directors of being involved in money laundering as well as criminal breach of trust.
He claimed that many airline employees have lost their jobs and some are not able to claim their outstanding salaries owed by the company.
Similar situations happened in the past, but the government failed to take measures to prevent it from recurring.
“(Previously) the authorities left it to the union and workers to handle the problems right to the end.
“This should not be the process as not many are willing to file legal suits against the company.
“So when will we eventually learn from these grave past mistakes?” he questioned.
Ismail stressed that it is time for strict changes to be made as MYAirline is the fourth airline that has gone into turmoil, leaving many airline workers in the dark, and leaving thousands of employees helpless.
For a start, he said, any airline to be registered must undergo proper scrutiny and due diligence on its financial status before approval, and the transport minister must approve the permit himself.
He also said Nufam had previously urged the government to ensure airline workers’ protections are in place and requested a new law and system to be implemented, but it was not done.
As such, Nufam urged all agencies including the Labour Department, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), and Social Security Organisation (Socso) to update all airline companies’ financial status regularly for the employees and alert them if the company fails to pay their statutory payments on time.
“This will make it easier for anyone to access the company’s actual status. It must be done regularly. Currently, airlines can claim that they are financially strong when in real fact, some are ‘bleeding’ silently,” he said.
Earlier, Ismail shared that employees of MYAirline had steady jobs before joining the airline, as they were offered high basic salaries and lucrative flight allowances. – October 18, 2023