Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn today urged Sun Media Corporation, publisher of The Sun daily, to treat its recently retrenched employees "with respect" and give them their due compensation.

The minister also advised the newspaper's branch of National Union of Journalists to follow the provision of laws.

"We are a society of laws. Both sides should not take the laws into their hands," he told a press conference after a Chinese New Year open-house at his ministry in Putrajaya.

Fong said the daily's management must pay the retrenchment benefits and bonus to the retrenched employees despite a likely change of ownership and management soon.

"The management, new or old, must abide by the collective agreement by both parties," he said.

Asked if there will be more retrenchment in the daily, the minister replied, "I have not been advised (on that)."

Candlelight vigils

The Sun sacked 40-odd employees, mostly journalists, in an unexpected move on Jan 11. Since then employees hold candlelight vigils intermittently to protest against the decision.

Prior to the retrenchment, members of the daily's NUJ branch had picketed several times to demand for their two-month contractual bonus which was not paid by Dec 31 last year.

The retrenched employees have lodged reports with the Industrial Relations Department (IRD) to pressure the management to settle the retrenchments benefits and bonus.

On Jan 22, fledgling multimedia company Nexnews Berhad signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to buy the entire stake of Sun Media Corporation and a 70 percent stake in The Edge Communications, publisher of business weekly The Edge .

Prior to that, business tycoon Vincent Tan who owns The Sun had acquired a 26.15 percent stake in Nexnews from Tong Kooi Ong who also owns The Edge , reducing the latter's stake to 26.17 percent.

Fong today said that though the ministry can "throw books" at the employer, it is best to continue with the ongoing reconciliations between both parties involved.

At the Human Resources Ministry this morning, some 10 retrenched employees of The Sun , led by NUJ president Norila Md Daud, handed over a letter to Fong urging him to intervene more actively to resolve the deadlock.

They also had a brief meeting with the minister who was on his way out for another function.

Several issues highlighted

It was learnt that the NUJ's letter had called on Fong to ensure that the much awaited meeting between The Sun 's management and the axed staff could materialise to resolve five issues related to the retrenchment.

Among the issues highlighted in the letter signed by Norila were the failure of the company to pay contractual bonuses, and the sudden retrenchment exercise without consultation with the union or observing the 'last in-first out' principle.

The letter also accused the company of practising 'union busting' as six out of 10 officials of the daily's NUJ branch were retrenched.

The other two issues were the failure by the company to set a deadline to pay retrenchment benefits, and the delay in an in-house investigation into two journalists who were suspended in late December over a controversial news report they wrote.

The report, published on Christmas Day, said that the police have uncovered a plot to assassinate the country's two top leaders.

Speaking to reporters this morning, Norila expressed her disappointment with The Sun 's management as it had failed to attend three scheduled meetings with the IRD last month.

"That was uncalled for. They don't respect the labour laws and IRD. The retrenchment was done haphazardly without consideration for the future of the workers," she said.