Focus on MAS accounts, not union matters,Tan told

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) today hit out at Public Accounts Committee (PAC) deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw for his statement regarding MAS Employees Union of Peninsular Malaysia (Maseu).
At a press conference at Wisma MTUC, its secretary-general N. Gopal Kishnam said the PAC deputy chairman was "barking up the wrong tree" and that it looked like Tan wanted to defend MAS by going after the unions.
"Dr Tan Seng Giaw, as the deputy chairman of PAC, should focus on the accounts and of the way MAS does its business and not use the union as a scapegoat for MAS's losses," Gopal said.
He went on to say that Tan was ignorant if he believes Maseu would go on strike if their members were retrenched.
"Obviously he does not know the process for a union to launch a strike in Malaysia. It is not as easy as he mentioned in his statement," Gopal said.
Maseu is unhappy with the management's attempt to restructure MAS, including the rumoured sale of its engineering division and other non-core businesses.
On June 15, Tan, who is also Kepong MP, took the airline's union to task for obstructing efforts to turn around MAS with their "unreasonable" demands and threats.
MAS reported a loss of RM1.17 billion last year and was in the red to the tune of RM443 million for the first quarter (Q1) of 2014, far deeper than the RM279 million loss in Q1 of 2013.