Union: MAS fired cabin crew for being overweight

The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) has accused Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) of unfairly sacking experienced cabin crew staff for failing to meet “ideal weights”.

Showing the media a termination letter issued to one of the five crew members involved, Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin classified the cases as “discrimination”.

Malaysiakini sighted the letter, titled “Cabin Crew Weight Management Program - first wave (2016): Termination” and Ismail said MAS did not meet with the recipient.

Issued on Sept 14, the letter stated that the recipient had “continuously failed to achieve his ideal weight as per the company’s grooming manual”, despite being on the weight management programme for 18 months.

He had also previously been given briefings with the airline’s human resources department and cabin operations department, an interview with the airline’s ground handling services subsidiary (AeroDarat Services Sdn Bhd), a show-cause letter and a “final weigh-in”.

The ideal weight listed by the airline for cabin crew is 67kg and the weight of the recipient was 89kg.

It added that no other positions were available for the recipient at the airline, thus the one-month termination notice.

Proper compensation promised

The letter, signed off by MAS Industrial Relations Executive Counsel senior manager Muhammad Fauzi Mahayuddin, also promised to make the proper compensation to the recipient, as per his contract.

Speaking at a press conference at the Nufam secretariat in Subang Jaya today, Ismail said all the five cabin crew members, three men and two women, terminated for this reason were above the age of 50 and had each worked for the airline for more than 20 years.

“Being overweight should not be tantamount to being fired, for you must have good reasons to terminate someone.

“And why was this (weight management) programme only applied to the cabin crew and not to pilots or ground staff?

“We demand that the Ministry of Human Resources demands that MAS re-engages these workers,” Ismail said, adding that the five affected were merely in the "first wave" of such terminations, with more expected to follow.

Nufam will be taking all five cases to the Industrial Court, he added.

MAS has been contacted for comment.- Mkini