FORMER Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd staff who have not been paid their compensation under the company’s voluntary separation scheme (VSS) have formed an action committee to pressure the management to pay what is due to them.

The six-man VSS action committee (BBV) is chaired by its former assistant editor Zaini Hassan, who will also organise legal representation for the beleaguered former staff members.

Zaini told The Malaysian Insight that BBV needed legal representation to protect their interests during negotiations with the management.

“We decided on this course of action. We want a lawyer present each time we meet the management.

“This is to ensure that the matter is dealt with professionally. We don’t want things to get worse before we get legal representation,” Zaini said.

He said 100 former employees have linked up with the committee so far and welcomed others to also come on board.

Last September, the ailing Malay-language daily publisher offered VSS to 800 of its 1,500 employees with compensation to be paid over 12 months.

Apart from publishing the 80-year-old Utusan Malaysia, the company also prints Kosmo.

There was trouble with the payment when the first tranche that was due in December was delayed and was paid a month later.

The Utusan management – helmed by former Kulim Bandar Baru MP, Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir – said the payment could not be made as the management did not have enough funds and was waiting for funds from the sale of some company assets.

Aziz then quit as chairman on December 13, two weeks after downsizing the company through the VSS layoffs.

However, he returned and took control of Utusan through Opulence Asia Sdn Bhd after that company bought a 31.6% stake from Umno.

In July this year, corporate leader Syed Mokhtar Albukhary also upped his stake in Utusan to 19.72% through Nilam Setar Sdn Bhd, making him the second-largest shareholder in the company.

Umno still has a presence in the company but with a reduced stake of 18.1%.

On August 19, hundreds of Utusan staff picketed outside its office, demanding the payment of salaries that had been in arrears for three months.

It triggered talks that the company was about to shutter and cease publishing Utusan Malaysia and sister paper Kosmo.

However, following a board meeting, the management decided to keep the paper afloat and, as a gesture of goodwill, paid employees RM2,000 each.

It also increased the cover price for Utusan Malaysia to RM2 and Kosmo to RM1.50.

Umno also contributed RM1.6 million to the paper, which went towards the staff salary.

The former ruling party said the money came from its allies after initially saying it could not help as its accounts were frozen as part of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd investigations. – September 1, 2019.