THE future of 6,000 Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) employees are in jeopardy after the railway company suffered an 80% drop in passenger load during the movement-control order (MCO).

The decline is expected to continue despite Putrajaya having eased restrictions under the conditional MCO (CMCO), as interstate travel is still banned except for emergencies.

Railwaymen Union of Malaysia president Razak Md Hassan told The Malaysian Insight that the government-owned rail operator has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“KTMB has suffered financial losses following the implementation of the MCO, when its passenger load dropped by 80%.

“It will continue to lose revenue and even with the CMCO, we are experiencing a drop of more than 65% in passenger load.

“In the long run, this will affect the company’s operations.”

He said the firm is looking at Putrajaya to come up with a long-term plan to sustain its operations, adding that if federal funds are injected into KTMB, it will be able to keep going.

“This will help with salary and operational costs. Putrajaya should give a special allocation because of the MCO, as (KTMB) is part of essential services.

“It is not so much to gain profits, but to provide services to the people.

“If the government doesn’t assist KTMB, how are we going to serve the people?”

He added that it is important for the government to think of ways to help KTMB become self-sustaining after movement restrictions are lifted.

“There is still no vaccine for Covid-19, and we don’t know how long it will take for our operations to fully recover.

“It could be more than a year. A long-term solution is, the government should continue to inject funds into our operations.”

At present, KTMB’s monthly operational costs stand at more than RM40 million.

The Malaysian Insight reported in January that KTMB was expected to suffer losses of about RM100 million for 2019 as its operations were not profitable, adding to its accumulated losses of RM2.83 billion in 2018.

The Auditor-General’s Report 2018 Series 2, released last December, attributed the company’s accumulated losses in part to a lack of freedom to make its own decisions on operations and use of assets.

The audit found that intercity and commuter train services recorded losses of between RM40 million and RM77.8 million between 2016 and July 2018.

Razak said some 6,000 unionised staff will be impacted if movement curbs continue and operations do not return to normal.

“Most of the workers earn a minimum wage of about RM1,250, and they rely on overtime and external work.

“If they don’t get overtime and have to rely on their basic pay, their take-home salary will be affected.

“We are under the union, and during the MCO, there were plans to cut their salary and ask them to go on unpaid leave, but we fought against it.

“We hope they can keep their jobs. They are providing a service to the people.” – May 19, 2020.