(June 30): After months of bitter haggling in trying save the jobs of their members, unions representing the workers of troubled airline Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in Sarawak and Sabah, are now telling them to "move on".

"It's time to see the restructuring work and make Malaysia Airlines successful again," Lim Swee Seng, secretary of the Airlines Workers Union in Sarawak, said to MAS employees who were retrenched and those offered employment in the new company.

"The past several months have been very challenging for employees of MAS with the unions having to deal with the restructuring and the laying off of 6,000 staff.

"It is very painful to see 6,000 of our colleagues lose their jobs," Lim said in a media conference to "rebuild the almost broken bridge" between the unions and management in Kuching this morning.

He was joined by representatives from the Sarawak Executive Staff Committee, Airlines Transport Workers Union of Sabah and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC).

Lim said its time to move on as they were encouraged with the approach and diligent manner of the restructuring team of Khazanah Holdings and new chief executive officer Christoph R. Mueller and the compensation package offered to retrenched workers.

"No unions want to see the loss of jobs and we understand some employees are not fully satisfied with either their job offer or the compensation package.

"However, under the circumstances, we believe that this is the only way forward and that the offer of employment and the compensation package are reasonable," the unions stated in a joint statement.

Despite the unhappiness, they said 98% of those offered re-employment agreed to the offer.

Kim said the union was happy with the compensation package after they were initially shocked at being told that those who are retrenched could not get the 1.5 months of salary for each year of service.

After four rounds of negotiations, the unions got most of what they wanted. Those terminated will get benefits in accordance with the relevant labour laws.

One of them is that is those who offered re-employment in the new company, Malaysia Airlines Bhd, would get up to 0.55 times their monthly salary for every year of service while those retrenched would get up to 1.5 months of salary for each year of service.

"We want our new airline to fly ahead not just with a clear vision but with a clear conscience. We want to roll up our sleeves and get down to serious and hard work to make the restructuring succeed.

"We will work closely with the new CEO to address the previous mismanagement head on. We want to make sure that the most important stakeholders, our customers and passengers, enjoy our once famous service – flying Malaysians to the world and bringing the world to Malaysia," the unions said.

Andrew Lo, secretary of MTUC Sarawak, said for the new airline to succeed, politicians should keep out of its corporate matters.

Political interference in corporate Malaysia is a serious matter, he said.

Less than 20% of the 1,200 employees in Sarawak and Sabah were laid off in the recent restructuring exercise. – The Malaysian Insider