KUALA LUMPUR: Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd (Malindo Air) has offered a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to all permanent and contract staff after failing to secure loan or guarantees from the government to sustain operations.
A Malaysian hybrid-full service carrier (FSC) owned by Indonesia's Lion Air Group, said the VSS was applicable to those with service contracts expire beyond December 31, 2020 at all levels, functions and locations on a voluntary basis.
In an internal memo dated May 29, 2020, sighted by the New Straits Times today, Malindo Air said the scheme was also initiated to gain mutual benefits for both the airline and employees.
"We are now left with no choice but to initiate a VSS due to decreasing sales trend and financial position for the last five months. There are no significant trends indicating upticks over the foreseeable six to 12 months," said Malindo Air Human Resources Department.
The airline said there was a huge surplus in its current manpower to support the reduced fleet size, following almost a 50 per cent reduction to its fleet size to 12 aircraft & 13 ATRs.
"The company has therefore decided to take this measure in order to continue to remain as a going concern and competitive. This VSS scheme is open to all employees," it said.
The company reminded that it reserves the sole and absolute right to accept or reject any employees' application based on the manpower requirements of the various departments.
"However, once an official Letter of Successful Application is issued to an applicant, subsequent retraction will not be entertained.
"This is necessary in order to avoid any disruption to the implementation of the scheme. As such, all applications must reach to human resources department beginning from June 1, 2020 and closing date will be on June 15, 2020," it added.
Malindo Air said it was committed to conducting the exercise with care and empathy by offering terms and conditions.
"We have tried our very best to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on our business and we sincerely appreciate all your understanding and support during this time," it said.
The carrier said interested employees shall approach their respective heads of department or the human resources department for more details on the application procedure including the timeline and information regarding the compensation package.
Malindo Air had previously taken various steps to mitigate the crippling impact of Covid-19 including suspending all recruitment, ceasing overtime, allowance and mileage claims; reducing staff working days and implementing work from home policy.
It also had embarked on the restructuring and re-designation department and staff, reassessing of wages, offering voluntary unpaid leave programme and discontinued employment for staff above 60 years old.