The Sun 's branch of the National Union of Journalists today agreed to put their picket on hold until the newspaper's management decide on the promised year-end bonus payment next Tuesday.

NUJ general secretary Hong Boon How said this after a one-hour meeting this evening between union representatives and the company's recently-appointed executive director Frankie Tay Thiam Siew.

"This does not mean that we are putting off our pressure on the management. We will continue our protest in other forms such as wearing black armbands and protest T-shirts," he said when contacted.

He said NUJ and its branch at The Sun will go "all out for protest in full force" should the company decide next week not to pay the bonus as promised early last December.

He added that Tay said he would need some time to talk to chairperson and owner of the Sun Media Corporation Vincent Tan.

Hong said the meeting went on "pretty well" despite some "tense moments".

The staff of The Sun were promised a two-month bonus by the management last year - one to be paid by end of last December and another month's bonus in three instalments commencing February.

However, the bonus was not paid last month and company deputy chairperson VK Lingam subsequently told the staff that the management was reconsidering the decision.

Pickets

The journalists have since gone on a series of pickets starting New Year's Eve to demand for their bonus payment as well as the reinstatement of their two colleagues who were suspended over a story on an alleged plot to kill the country's top two leaders.

The assassination story was published on Christmas day and criticised by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for being 'sensationalist'.

Following that, the newspaper ran a front-page apology, saying that the story was 'baseless'. Two senior editors were suspended indefinitely pending in-house investigations, while company executive director and editor-in-chief H'ng Hung Yong had resigned over it.

Sources told malaysiakini that at the meeting today, Tay told those present that H'ng had promised the bonus to the staff in writing last December without consulting the company.

Tay was also said to have told them that the company was unable to meet the "financial obligations" due to its accumulated losses over the past eight years.

It is estimated that The Sun has lost some RM200 million since its inception in 1993.