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Old 6th Jan 2002, 03:29
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Usman
 
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by DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang in Penang on Tuesday, 25th
December 2001:

The MAS manpower rationalisation exercise to retrench 3,000 - 4,000
workers should be made public as this goes against the public
undertaking of "no retrenchment" during the RM1.8 billion government
buy-back bailout of MAS last year
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It has been reported that Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has completed a
study on a manpower rationalisation exercise to help it stay
competitive, which would involve the elimination of between 3,000 and
4,000 jobs from its current payroll of over 21,000 for the national
airline to remain operationally viable and that the report will be
submitted to the Government, the controlling shareholder, for approval
and implementation early next year. (Business Times)

DAP calls on the government to make public the MAS manpower
rationalisation exercise to retrench 3,000 to 4,000 workers as this
goes against its public undertaking of "no retrenchment" during the
RM1.8 billion government buy-back bailout of MAS last year.

The RM1.8 billion government buy-back of 29 per cent MAS stake to
bailout Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli and Naluri at the exorbitant price of
RM8 per share representing a premium of RM4.32 or 117 per cent over
the closing market price at RM3.68 per share when the deal was signed
on 20th December 2000 becomes even more outrageous and indefensible
when the naked and blatant result is the bailout of one person and
one company at the expense of thousands of loyal MAS employees and the
Malaysian taxpayers.

The then Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, gave a most
irresponsible reply in Parliament in March when he claimed that RM8
per share was a "good buy" for the government to re-acquire 29 per
cent of MAS stake, when the highest price ever reached by MAS this
year (even before the September 11 terrorist attacks) was only RM4 per
share.

Up to now, Daim’s failure to address two important issues about the
government MAS buy-back bailout stood as a terrible indictment on his
tenure as Finance Minister, viz:

· Why no independent professional valuation was ever done when the
government agreed to pay Tajudin's Naluri Bhd for the MAS stake at RM8
per share when its closing market price when the deal was signed on
20th December 2000 was only RM3.68 per share. Tajudin had
subsequently admitted in a circular dated Jan 22, 2001 to minority
shareholders of Naluri Bhd, in which he owns 47 per cent: "No
independent valuation was carried out for the said sale
consideration".

· Why rules for the bail-out of companies established by the National
Economic Action Council in the "National Economic Recovery Plan" was
violated and Tajudin was not only spared from having to "take his
appropriate hair-cuts" but was given a bonanza at taxpayers' expense
to reward for his mismanagement of MAS by being given 117% premium
for the MAS shares over the market price, transforming it into a
personal rescue for Tajudin instead of a public rescue for MAS.

Be that as it may, now that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr.
Mahathir Mohamad has personally taken over as the Finance Minister,
and as he was the one who gave the public undertaking that there would
be no retrenchment of workers by MAS after the government buy-back of
the controlling stake in the national airline, the Malaysian public as
the ultimate owners of MAS are entitled to a full accounting as to how
the government proposes to restore the viability and competitiveness
of the national airline - including the proposed retrenchment of 3,000
to 4,000 MAS workers in violation of his earlier "no retrenchment"
pledge.

Lim Kit Sian
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