THE country’s largest media company, Media Prima Bhd, has suspended a mutual separation scheme (MSS) after it allegedly violated several provisions in the labour laws, said sources.

The matter has now been referred to the Industrial Relations Department after the alleged violations were pointed out by in-house unions, they told The Malaysian Insight.

“The scheme has been suspended temporarily. The first phase of the layoffs that were scheduled to be implemented in the last week of November did not take place.

“As far as I know, this case has been taken to the Industrial Relations Department. I believe that the MSS will not be implemented until the outcome of the discussions there. Now everything remains the same,” a source said.

The Malaysian Insight first reported on November 23 of Media Prima’s plan to offer MSS to 300 employees in three of its television stations in a bid to ease financial losses.

The offer by the company, which operates four free-to-air television stations and three newspaper publications, was a follow up to earlier schemes to reduce its workforce. Previously, it offered voluntary separation scheme (VSS) and career break leave (CBL) to staff.

Sources told The Malaysian Insight then that Media Prima’s top management made the offer to the 1,100 employees in three networks – ntv7, 8TV and TV3.

The MSS exercise was to have been carried out in two phases with the first to begin in the last week of November followed by June next year.

The target was to reduce workforce from 1,100 to about 800.

As for compensation, an eligible employee will receive a month’s pay for every year of service. 

The MSS offer then caught the attention of Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran when the Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad (TV3) employees’ union (KSKSTMB) and the TV3 executive union (KESTMB) submitted a memorandum to him to protest against Media Prima’s move to retrench workers.

The unions called for the intervention of the ministry to stop the retrenchment exercise, which they said was not conducted according to the law.

Among the accusations mentioned in the memorandum was that Media Prima’s management did not discuss the matter with the unions before announcing the retrenchment exercise. – December 10, 2018.