PUTRAJAYA should focus on the welfare of some 13,000 Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) staff told to go on unpaid leave rather than fuss over shariah-compliant attire for female flight attendants, said Bersatu Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

The former youth and sports minister took to Twitter today to chide Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff of PAS for asking female flight attendants to cover their “aurat” in pushing for shariah-compliant attire.

Syed Saddiq, the Bersatu youth chief, said the priority should be to help some 13,000 MAS employees who were offered unpaid leave as the Covid-19 situation worsened, resulting in airlines cutting back on operations.

“Thirteen thousand MAS employees were told to take unpaid leave due to the coronavirus epidemic. This is without counting other airlines.

“YB, please help them overcome this problem first. Many of them are youth,” Syed Saddiq said on Twitter.

13000 Kakitangan MAS perlu ambil cuti tanpa gaji kerana wabak CoronaVirus. Ini tidak masuk syarikat penerbangan yang lain.

Mohon bantu mereka tangani masalah ini dahulu YB.

Kebanyakan dari mereka anak muda. https://t.co/RGYrrlSY9s

— Syed Saddiq (@SyedSaddiq) March 14, 2020

Since Covid-19 has taken a heavy toll on airline operations, MAS offered all employees three months no-pay leave or five days no-pay leave per month for at least three months, starting April.

The voluntary unpaid leave programme also involves subsidiaries of Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), such as MAB Kargo, MAB Engineering, Firefly and MASwings.

Yesterday, Malayia recorded 39 new Covid-19 infections, the largest number in a single day since the outbreak began.

This has raised the country’s total number of positive cases to 197. 

Siti Zailah, the Rantau Panjang MP from PAS yesterday said that she will soon have a meeting with religious affairs minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri to discuss the implementation of shariah-compiant attire for flight attendants. – March 14, 2020.