Union says MAS fires steward even before he is charged or tried for alleged sexual assault.
MASPETALING JAYA: A steward from MAS has been given his walking papers for misconduct despite unproven accusations that he sexually assaulted an Australian women passenger in August this year.
According to the Malaysian Insider, National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) president Ismail Nasaruddin confirmed the sacking saying the letter was sent to the steward’s home in the Klang Valley just two weeks after the alleged incident.
The more disheartening aspect of the sacking is that the steward is still in detention in Paris, having not even been charged or tried for the alleged offence yet.
Saying the sacking was unlawful, Ismail added that the union had now appealed to the Industrial Relations Department to re-instate the long-serving employee.
Speaking about the case, Ragunath Kesavan, a lawyer said, “The employee is deemed innocent until proven guilty by a court and MAS should have gone all the way to secure his freedom from the detention centre.”
Instead it is learned MAS distanced themselves from the incident and the only assistance the steward received was from Malaysian Embassy officials in Paris.
Shailender Bhar, who is representing the steward, said that under the Tokyo Convention, the steward should be sent home for investigation instead of being detained for months on end in Paris.
She added that the alleged incident did not even take place in France or their air space, thereby making his detention unlawful.
In the August 4 incident, a passenger by the name of Laura Bushney made a police report upon touching down in Paris, that the sacked steward had massaged her legs and run his hands down her pants during the MAS flight she was on. The 26-year-old also alleged she had recorded the entire assault on her iPhone.
However soon after these accusations, Bushney herself came under attack for her unbelievable story with many saying that if she was frozen with fear as she claimed, she would not have had the presence of mind to record the entire assault. Topless pictures of her on Instagram, which later emerged and have since been pulled down, further went against her credibility.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/11/13/mas-sacks-steward-despite-unproven-misconduct/