Retrenched employees of The Sun were kept waiting in vain at the Human Resources Ministry in Putrajaya this morning when the daily's senior management staff failed to show up for a meeting with Labour Department officials.

There is suspicion that The Sun's management is stalling for time in paying compensation to 40-odd staff who were abruptly retrenched on Jan 11.

Former chairperson of the newspaper's National Union of Journalists branch, K Kannan (right), said the management's no-show today was a deliberate attempt to force the issue into the Industrial Court, thus anticipating a long drawn-out court case.

"If the case goes to court then they won't have to pay us soon. They can wait until the case is over which may take a year or two," Kannan said.

The laid-off employees had sent a five-point letter to the Labour Department spelling out the breach of contract by the management.

The NUJ-Sun branch claimed that the management failed to comply with terms of the collective agreement between the union and management.

Staff had been sacked without the benefit of an agreed 30-day notice period. The management had also not adhered to the 'last in, first out' principle pertaining to retrenchments as stipulated in the collective agreement, said Kannan.

The retrenchment was seen as a blatant union-busting exercise, as key union leaders were among the 43 staff given marching orders.

Staff given run-around

Termination letters handed over to the retrenched staff early this month stated that those affected would be entitled to salary up to their last working day, fixed allowances calculated up to then, a one-month salary for the absence of a proper notice and retrenchment benefits under the collective agreement.

None of these have been paid out to those axed.

"Retrenched staff should receive their compensation within seven days of being laid-off," said Kannan.

He said they had instead been given the run-around by the management.

Initially, they were told to obtain income tax clearance before claiming compensation.

However, last Friday the ex-employees were barred from entering The Sun building when they went to the headquarters to claim their dues after obtaining the necessary clearance.

Owner purchases shares

Meanwhile, The Sun reported on Saturday that its owner, business tycoon Vincent Tan, had bought over 10 million shares or 26 percent of Nexnews Bhd, a company with Internet-based media and online trading interests.

Tan owns The Sun Media Corp Sdn Bhd which publishes The Sun. It is said to be losing over RM2 million a month.

Former staff of The Sun are perplexed at the paper's audacity in retrenching its staff only a week earlier, citing financial difficulties as the reason, followed by its owner making a multi-million ringgit share purchase elsewhere.

Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn had last week said that the retrenchments at The Sun will be looked into.

The Industrial Relations Department will fix another appointment to meet the daily's management.