GEORGETOWN, May 30 – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said Penang has a shortage of more than 6,000 workers which will enable the state to assist in the 6,000 Malaysia Airlines (MAS) employees who will soon be retrenched as part of measures to overhaul the national carrier on Monday in his press conference yesterday.
“The state government was looking at ways and mechanisms to assist the 6,000 workers who would be made redundant by offering them the legal advice or job placement assistance to the affected. Penang was still short of workers in various industries, including tourism and hospitality, and that those retrenched may be able to find suitable jobs in the state,” said CM Lim.
“I’m surely that some of them are from Penang but whether or not they want to come back and work here. In the same time, we also unsure if the same amount of salary could be paid to them. I will make another announcement on this when there is more clarity. We are willing to help them because we felt that MAS employees should not be punished for bad or poor decisions made by the airline management,” he said.
“Why does the management never been punished first? The consultants will likely be let off with some golden handshake. The workers are just workers and were not involved in the wrong decisions that have resulted in the losses for MAS and should not be punished for losses incurred as a result of mismanagement,” he added.
Last week, The airline’s new chief executive officer Christoph Mueller was reported that the restructuring plan will see a downsizing of its current 20,000 MAS employees to approximately 14,000 which was a reduction of 30%. The termination letter and offer letter will be sent to MAS employees home addresses on Monday which means that over 6,000 employees will lose their jobs.
