Bernama won't sue disgruntled news presenter, seeks dialogue
Bernama will not take legal action against outgoing staff member Sydney Yap Xi Ni over her complaints of pay cuts and other internal problems at the news agency’s TV arm.
Bernama CEO Roslan Ariffin said they would prefer to talk the matter out instead.
Bernama will not take legal action against outgoing staff member Sydney Yap Xi Ni over her complaints of pay cuts and other internal problems at the news agency’s TV arm.
Bernama CEO Roslan Ariffin said they would prefer to talk the matter out instead.
On Aug 5, Bernama announced that its 6pm Mandarin news programme would only air from Monday to Friday.
Following this, Yap wrote a lengthy explanation on her Facebook, claiming that there were staffing issues due to low wages and wage cuts and delays in hiring due to bureaucracy.
Following this, a message from Bernama was circulated to the media stating it would take legal action against the news presenter.
Malaysiakini verified the message’s authenticity with Roslan and Bernama chairperson Ras Adiba Radzi.
However, Roslan clarified today that the message was not a press statement.
Instead, he said it was an internal report and recommendations from Bernama’s human resources department, and it was they who proposed legal action as she is still under contract.
However, the news agency CEO said that this should be a last resort.
“(I told HR) before we take action, can we call her? She is so angry, and what is her anger about?
“I said why fight? Contact her. If she made a mistake (she can) apologise. Say sorry, or it was a misunderstanding. Figure it out,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Roslan said he was also open to discussing Yap’s problems over tea or coffee.
At the same time, he also questioned why she had not raised any complaints during her three years with Bernama TV.
“Did she get her salary? She did. Was her salary raised? Yes. She has been working with us for three years. Why would she suddenly be angry over a three-year problem?
“If you are angry, the first year you are mad, you would leave. Why wait three years, until the last day and say, ‘that is wrong, it’s very unfair’ when in meetings you smiled, right?” he asked.
Roslan said widespread media reports about Yap’s case had caused extensive damage as people began to blow things out of proportion.
Yap had said that she spoke out during her final days in order to raise awareness of problems faced by the media.
The Bernama Mandarin News programme was once outsourced to a private company before it was absorbed by Bernama in 2019.
In her allegations, Yap said those who wished to continue working on the programme were forced to take pay cuts with “insignificant” increments in the following years.
She revealed that from a team of eight, Bernama Mandarin News was now down to three.
Roslan, however, defended Bernama’s human resources practices.
For contract staff, he said, each year when their tenure is renewed and comes with a pay raise based on the government service guidelines.
He also said it was normal for contract staff not to get promotions.
However, he said that if Yap had waited and worked at Bernama until she had five years for the news agency, she could have been made a permanent staff member as had been done for over 70 Bernama TV employees since 2019.
He also denied Yap’s allegation that Bernama has a 45 working-day waiting period before hiring a prospective employee.
Likewise, he denied that news reading fees were slashed and said that payments were made based on the number of times a news presenter went on air.
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