Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
BY B.K. SIDHU
OF late, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has reinstated flights that it had axed about two years ago.
At that time, it had cut capacity by 12% under its route rationalisation exercise in January 2012. Over the last few months, however, it has added some routes, with Dubai returning to its radar screen in August and Darwin in Australia by November.
It will also begin flights to new destinations such as Kochi in India in September and has added frequencies to some existing routes, including Auckland.
All this is part of its strategy to expand its network. Now that it is a member of oneworld alliance, it has more reasons to provide wider connectivity. It also has additional planes, given that it has taken delivery of six A380s, leaving it with more planes to ply new routes and add more capacity to high-yielding ones.
The endgame is that it has to make money, and hopefully, all these new additions would help MAS fly more passengers across the globe and earn it more money than what it spends.
This had been its major problem that led to a management change two years ago. It does not earn enough to sustain its operations and the red ink in its books persists although it is at the tail-end of a massive restructuring to return it to the path of profitability.
For the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, its net loss widened to RM278.6mil from RM171.38mil a year ago on the back of a 10.79% increase in revenue to RM3.39bil.
However, it managed to narrow its operating loss by 46% to RM165mil for the said quarter, compared with RM307mil in the same quarter in 2012.
Its worst-ever loss was in 2011, where it reported RM2.5bil in net losses.
That aside, yesterday, its biggest union – Malaysia Airlines System Employees Union (Maseu) – held a press conference to voice its displeasure over the way MAS is managed and the continued losses reported by the airline despite having a new team in place since August 2011.
To them, the “trial-and-error” model being used to turn MAS around is not working, and they are now demanding for a change in management.
What the motive of Maseu this time around is not known, but what is clear is that in the past, it had managed to pave the way for the decision to undo the share-swap agreement between MAS and AirAsia by using power cables.
And nothing is going to stop it again to try and get its voice heard. It is said to be preparing a memorandum to the Prime Minister again.
MAS’ management has undertaken various steps to turn the airline around, and while some analysts are confident the airline would return to profitability this year, MAS is looking at 2014 to be a profitable year.
Interestingly, Maseu is also facing its own battles, as some members of its cabin crew might leave the union if the new union – National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) – gets its way to represent the cabin crew.
The secret ballot, which had been cancelled earlier, was carried out over 10 days till July 16. There are about 3,800 flight attendants, but it is not clear, as of now, how many of them had cast the ballot and chosen Nufam over Maseu.
The secret ballot, organised by Nufam, is also viewed as an effort by flight attendants’ to break away from the powerful Maseu.
How all this is going to pan out remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, there are many interested parties that want MAS to be profitable again, and the investors are still waiting.
Business editor (news) B.K. Sidhu is in the mood to travel.
Source: The Star
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