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?
They are demanding a change to current policies so that the ground staff and
cabin crew are entitled to the same maternity and retirement benefits.
<p>The MAS management must stop its discriminatory practices against female cabin
crew and show itself as a company that is in tune with the government’s
policy and the nation’s aspirations of eliminating gender bias, they told
a press conference organised by the Joint Action Group Against Violence Against
Women (JAG-VAW) in Petaling Jaya.</p>
<p>According to ex-stewardess Dollie Tan, both female and male ground staff are
entitled to retire at the age of 55. Female ground staff are allowed paid maternity
leave.</p>
<p>“For the past 23 years, however, MAS has discriminated against the female
cabin crew by subjecting them to premature retirement. Currently, the retirement
age for ladies is at 40 or 45, if they are supervisors, while male cabin crew
retire at 55,” said Tan.</p>
<p>Female cabin crew are also not permitted to get pregnant during the first seven
years of their service with the airline. After seven years, they are only allowed
to have two children. Those who have more than two children are forced to resign
or they will be terminated.</p>
<p>Tan, 43, gave birth to a daughter last August. She was an in-flight supervisor
when she resigned last November, after serving the airline for 16 years.</p>
<p><b>Service terminated</b></p>
<p>Another stewardess, Melissa Yong, 36, (photo, left) said she was told to leave
early last year by the management as she had “violated the terms in the
collective agreement” by becoming pregnant.</p>
<p>Yong also claimed that the cabin crew were told to sign many papers when they
joined the airline.</p>
<p>“We were told to sign these quickly and return them. There was no time
for us to go through the agreement at all. We were naive 18 or 19-year-olds
at the time,” she said.</p>
<p>According to Yong, they were only given a copy of the job offer letter, without
a copy of the contract or collective agreement.</p>
<p>Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah, who was at the
press conference, urged aspiring air stewardesses to “move away from good
looks and concentrate on skills and professionalism”.</p>
<p>She also said it is high time that MAS reviews the collective agreement so
that the interests of female cabin crew are adequately protected.</p>
<p><b>Fund for Beatrice</b></p>
<p>Women Development Council executive director Maria Chin Abdullah said “
reproductive rights are the right of women and the airline has no right to stipulate
such stringent terms over that right in the agreement”.</p>
<p>“All the other employees of the airline have full (maternity) benefits,
but not the cabin crew,” she noted.</p>
<p>Former MAS union team member and ex-stewardess Siti Rahilah Mohd Hashim, 47,
told reporters that “as a union, we always tried our best to present recommendations
which are of interests to our members”.</p>
<p>“That was as much as we could do. Every time the union met, the ladies
would fight for the ladies,” said Siti who was part of the union in the
early 1990s and who resigned at the end of 1997.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Beatrice Fernandez Fund was set up under the auspices of the
Malaysian Trade Union Council (MTUC) women’s committee to assist the former
MAS stewardess in settling her legal fees.</p>
<p>Her services were terminated in 1991 by the airline when she became pregnant.
Her final appeal was thrown out by the court recently.</p>
<p>Note: Information on the fund may be obtained from Noorlaila Aslah, who chairs
the MTUC women’s section.
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com