The Sun 's management should call for an immediate discussion with the 42 staff it recently retrenched to resolve outstanding issues over their sudden dismissal.

"They are forcing us to continue picketing," lamented the daily's former National Union of Journalists (NUJ) chairperson K Kannan.

"They should settle everything and leave nothing outstanding. If they have called for a discussion, it would have saved all this trouble."

Last Friday, The Sun began a massive retrenchment exercise in a bid to stem its losses which have amounted to RM200 million since the newspaper was launched eight years ago.

The mass lay-offs included several key figures in the paper's NUJ branch who were instrumental in protesting against the delay of the bonus payment and the suspension of several journalists.

The journalists were suspended following the daily's controversial front-page report last month on a plot to kill the country's top two leaders.

The termination of the 42 editorial staff members last Friday came as a shock, prompting those axed to accuse the company of acting in bad faith. They claimed that the retrenchment exercise did not follow the 'first in, last out' principle and certain vocal union leaders were singled out to be fired.

The journalists and and their supporters have been on continuous a picket since the publication of the assassination plot report.

Picket to continue

Kannan, who was the first journalist to be issued a termination letter, said today daily pickets would continue calling for the reinstatement of editorial staff members, especially leading members of the staff union.

Six out of 10 members of the daily's NUJ committee were retrenched in the exercise.

Malaysiakini yesterday reported that the Sun Media Corp Sdn Bhd executive director Frankie Tay as saying that the management would not continue with its retrenchment exercise but remained steadfast in not reinstating those affected.

Tay had also asked for a two-week grace period for the management to make a decision over the payment of the two-month contractual bonus which was scheduled for release last month and in February.

Termination letters handed over to the retrenched staff stated that those affected would be entitled for salary up to their last working day, fixed allowances calculated up to the last working day, a one-month's salary for the absence of a proper notice and retrenchment benefits under the collective agreement. However, no mention was made of the bonus payment.

Claudia Theophilus, former assisant secretary of the newspaper's journalists union, said that they would continue on picketing for their rights. She was among those who were sacked.

"The newspaper died on Dec 27 and we will make sure that we will do whatever necessary to get back our rights," she said.