THE Utusan Malaysia branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has demanded that the company’s management forms a trustee committee to monitor the payment of the voluntary separation scheme (VSS) which will come into effect at the end of next month.

A spokesman for NUJ-Utusan said it will lodge a report with the Human Resources Ministry if the committee, which was proposed by the Kumpulan Utusan Melayu Berhad’s management, had yet to be formed by November 30.

“A lot of employees are confident of taking the VSS because the management had said it will form the committee.

“However, as of now there is nothing yet. We demand the management form the trustee committee,” the spokesman told The Malaysian Insight.

According to the spokesman, the management had suggested the committee be formed by outside parties such as Amanah Raya Berhad and representatives of Utusan’s union.

The VSS offer which ended last Wednesday will go into effect on November 30.

According to the offer, the retrenchment compensation will be paid in instalments over a period of 12 months.

The spokesman said NUJ-Utusan was told that the compensation offered to about 800 employees will cost around RM80 million, which will be collected from the sale of the company’s assets.

“We do not know which assets but we were made to understand that the Utusan Melayu headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and two factories in Bangi (Selangor) and Seberang Jaya (Pulau Pinang) will not be sold,” said the spokesman.

On September 21, the Umno-owned media company offered the scheme which is aimed at off-loading at least 50% of its 1,500-strong workforce.

At that time, the management offered retrenchment packages which included a monthly pay which will be multiplied with the years of service or the remaining years before retirement.

After pressure and intervention from the government, Utusan agreed to increase the VSS compensation package.

Those who were receiving an income of below RM5,000 were then offered a compensation of one-and-a-half month’s pay for every year of service or number of years left before retirement.

Those earning between RM5,000 and RM10,000 would get one-and-a-quarter month’s pay, while staff earning more than RM10,000 would get one month’s pay.

However all the other offers remained, including the instalment method of payment for 12 months, which was previously criticised by Deputy Human Resources Minister Mahfuz Omar.

The announcement of the revisions was made by Utusan Melayu executive chairman Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, two days after Utusan’s management met with Mahfuz.

Utusan had previously delayed the payment of salaries for the months of August and September which led to its employees preparing to picket.

The company is currently a PN17 company – denoting its financials are inadequate as a listed entity – after defaulting on loan repayments amounting to RM1.2 million to two banks.

Umno holds a majority share of 49.77% in Utusan which last made profit in 2011. Its accumulated losses until March was RM71.4 million. – October 15, 2018.