Some 30 Bernama TV ( BTV ) employees went back on leave yesterday over unpaid remuneration, two days after being paid partial back-pay of RM500 for the month of November.

In a letter sighted by Malaysiakini , the staff said they would be "unable to (be) present at work due to financial constraints from Dec 10 until full salary (is) paid by Bernama TV Synergy."

They had previously gone on leave for the whole of last week after not receiving their November salaries after last receiving full wages on Oct 20.

The staff, who are signed under private entity Bernama TV Synergy, claim top management warned that taking leave would jeopardise their chances of being absorbed by their parent government-run Bernama , but the news agency's general manager Zulkefli Salleh has denied this.

"No," Zulkefli said when contacted, adding that disciplinary action would not be taken either, as Bernama "understands (the BTV staff's) predicament."

Sources in BTV revealed that Zulkefli will hold a brief meeting with the workers later today.

'Pro-BN' news dragging station down

Meanwhile, a former employee who worked at BTV for more than four years blamed the station's focus on pro-BN news for its financial woes.

" BTV should stop writing news that is only pro-BN as it is not beneficial. If BN wants (special news coverage), then pay!" she told Malaysiakini.

She also rubbished plans to turn the multilingual channel into a purely English one, saying that BTV "must focus on making money" to pay staff and buy more assets.

The former Malay news assistant producer refused to be named, fearing negative impact on her career.

Echoing her views was the station's former production manager, who cited the company's agenda "to fulfil the political ambitions of certain parties," instead of improving news quality and making money to survive and pay its staff.

"They know that the government will step in to rescue them (if the station fails) and therefore do not particularly strive to sell their product.

"They have a good brand name but don't know how to make use of it, promote and sell it," she told Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity.

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