1. ARTICLES
This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 14 - 20, 2015
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A construction industry executive recently rented a high-end condominium for about 30% less than the going rate a year ago. Why was the condominium so cheap? The property agent replied that the previous tenant — a high-ranking oil and gas (O&G) official — had lost his job.
“It’s quite common now for O&G expatriates to lose their jobs, so the property market has also been impacted,” the agent said.
According to a senior executive in the once-booming oil and gas sector, as many as 7,000 to 8,000 executives have lost their jobs after the second round of industry-wide retrenchments in the country.
He has been told by colleagues that Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Scomi Group Bhd and UMW Oil & Gas Corp Bhd have put a freeze on hiring and the list of companies doing the same is getting longer.
“Worse still, MMHE [Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd] is looking to discontinue the services of as many as 800 contractual workers, and Petronas is also mulling over a similar move,” he says.
Such moves are often denied and never publicised.
An MMHE official tells The Edge that the company only makes such announcements internally, but adds that she has not heard of recent staff-reduction exercises.
“MMHE, like most businesses, is operating in a very competitive industry and under tough economic conditions. Regrettably, this often has an unavoidable impact on staff,” an MMHE spokesperson says.
Nevertheless, the anxiety caused by the rumours is understandable considering MMHE in its annual report for FY2014 says that it has 3,220 employees spread out in its fabrication yards in Pasir Gudang and its corporate office in Menara Dayabumi, Kuala Lumpur. Thus, the 800 employees would work out to nearly 25% of its workforce.
According to the company’s annual report,