A deputy editor at The Sun was served with his retrenchment notice by three of the paper's senior management personnel who personally came to his house on his day off to hand over the letter.

Former deputy editor of daily's business desk, Bob Teoh, 53, said today the three, including senior corporate affairs manager Lim Soon, had arrived at his home at about 5.30pm on Thursday.

"I wasn't in so they handed the letter over to my mother-in-law," said the newsman adding that he had expected to be retrenched after his earlier offer to resign was rejected.

Teoh said the recent lay-offs at the troubled paper were actually firings 'camouflaged as retrenchments'.

Ironically, Teoh had been writing a weekly Sun column called Case in Point which focused on issues such as termination, redundancy, unfair dismissal and unfair labour polices.

The column which Teoh started, however, was discontinued last month.

'Plot to kill PM'

Teoh said he was sure that the management would not reinstate any of the 42 staff they retrenched last week.

He said this was the price to pay for being in journalism. "Journalism is a truth-seeking pursuit. In this country we lose our jobs for telling the truth. In other countries you may lose your life altogether."

The Sun axed 43 staff members, mostly from the editorial department, on Jan 11.

The paper has been besieged with problems since it ran a controversial story on a plot to kill Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Several key editorial personnel either resigned or were suspended following the event.

Staff members subsequently picketed and held candlelight vigils in protest of the suspension of their colleagues and also on the non-payment of bonuses.

The daily's management has cited financial reasons for the retrenchment exercise refuting claims it was purging the paper of National Union of Journalist members and those who supported the suspended journalists.

More retrenchment

On reports that was losing RM2 million a month, Teoh said he estimated monthly losses by the paper to be at around RM1.2 million.

"The newspaper business is a long-haul industry. These losses are to be expected as the paper is less than 10 years old.

"Other newspaper companies have gone on longer without breaking even," he said.

Teoh said there could be final round of retrenchment at the daily in coming weeks involving 20 more staff. Those retained can expect a 20 to 30 percent pay cut, he said

"I've seen papers close down in the past but nothing as disgraceful as what happened at The Sun has happened before, " he said.