KUALA LUMPUR – The Industrial Relations Department has received 31 representations from retrenched Malindo Airways staff to date seeking for their reinstatement, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said more are expected to come forward in the coming weeks, noting that disgruntled former employees have up to two months to do so.
He said this is provided under the Industrial Relations Act 1967, which allows staff who consider their dismissal to be without just cause or excuse to write to the director-general of the department to be reinstated in their former employment.
“Those who feel that their services were unjustly ended can file a representation to be taken back into their former workplace.
“Up to November 2, the Industrial Relations Department has received 31 cases involving former Malindo employees. 24 of these cases have been solved amicabally, while the remaining seven cases are still being negotiated.
“The department is expecting to receive more cases from Malindo in the near future, seeing that the time limit of 60 days to file a representation for reinstatement has not ended,” he said today.
Saravanan, however, did not elaborate on how the cases involving the 24 ex-staff were solved or if any of them were reinstated.
The minister was responding to a question from Kasthuri Patto (PH-Batu Kawan) on what assistance are being provided by the ministry to assist Malindo staff who were retrenched with immediate effect last week.
It was previously reported that Malindo had effectively cut more than half of its 3,200-strong workforce on October 28 after the collapse of its business due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The carrier informed the 2,200 affected staff members that it was “forced to take several measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on our business”. - The Vibes, November 3, 2020