The Star’s delivery contractors cry foul over abrupt termination

Newspaper defends the decision as purely commercial.

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PETALING JAYA: Five newspaper contractors recently had their delivery contracts abruptly terminated by English daily The Star.

They and their workers will have to wait two days to know if they can keep their jobs.

This comes after the five, along with their family members and co-workers, met senior management officials from the newspaper’s business development department at The Star headquarters here today.

One of the contractors, Satishdevan Ponniah, who spoke to reporters after meeting officials for over an hour, alleged that their contracts were terminated without basis on Aug 14.

“They terminated our delivery contracts and then awarded the job to only one contractor,” he said, adding that there was no open tender for this.

Satishdevan said the termination of his contract made him feel as if he had lost everything.

“It is like a carpet has been pulled out from under my feet.

“What will happen to us now since we have no more income to pay our debts?”

Satishdevan said he hoped for an amicable outcome from today’s meeting with The Star.

In an immediate response, The Star Media Group denied that the contracts were terminated, claiming that they had only expired.

“It is purely a commercial decision in the present challenging market conditions.

“The rationalisation exercise is an ongoing project. We regret that the affected parties have sought the involvement of groups which are not in the trade,” it said in a statement.

Another contractor, K Thinagaran, said he was baffled over the abrupt termination.

“We have not received any complaints about our work. Why are we being treated like this?”

He said if The Star’s response was not satisfactory, he and other affected contractors may take the matter up with the authorities.

Earlier today, the five contractors, along with 50 other people consisting of family members and workers, had planned to stage a protest outside The Star’s headquarters here.

However, the protest was called off after The Star’s officials greeted them and invited them to a meeting. - FMT