Editor asks MIC to help Tamil journalists

Berita Daily editor calls for minimum wages and action against errant publishers.

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC has been asked to help journalists in Tamil-language newspapers who suffer low wages, few or no benefits, and errant publishers who do not pay salaries late or withhold statutory deductions.

Nanta Kumar, editor of the Berita Daily online newspaper, said most reporters on the six daily Tamil newspapers earn less than RM2,500 a month. They do not get any additional benefits, not even overtime.

“In many cases, salaries are delayed up to three months, and even then, the backdated pay is not paid in full. Some prominent Tamil newspaper owners have also failed to make EPF and Socso payments for their staff,” he wrote in a memorandum submitted to the MIC on Friday, according to Malaysiakini.

The memorandum was addressed to party president S Subramaniam and other party leaders.

Nanta asked that Tamil newspaper journalists be paid a minimum month salary of RM2,500 in the Klang Valley and RM2,000 elsewhere, and a welfare fund be set up, especially to help veteran journalists.

Publishers who fail to pay salaries for two months must be suspended and their directors fined in court, and those who do not make EPF and Socso contributions punished under the law.

Nanta asked Subramaniam to head a special committee comprising owners and publishers to oversee the changes.

He told Malaysiakini that four of the six Tamil dailies were not performing well and only continued publishing to serve their owners’ political interests.

He said a few journalists had brought up these complaints to the Labour Department on leaving employment but others were reluctant to file complaints for fear of losing their jobs.

Labour law allows employers to pay salaries not later than a week after the end of the month but may also ask the Labour Department for an extension of time.