Bernama outgoing staff member Sydney Yap Xi Ni today called bluff on CEO Roslan Ariffin’s comments about her complaints of pay cuts and other internal problems at the news agency’s TV arm.
Labelling Roslan arrogant and cynical, she maintained that the Bernama CEO was not considerate towards the rights of media personnel who have been marginalised.
“I am very disappointed with the Bernama CEO’s response, who considered me guilty of raising the issue of staff welfare at Bernama.
“I emphasise again that this is not the first time I have voiced the issue,” she said.
Yap said she had attempted to raise the issues to the head of the TV arm, the head of TV and Radio, Bernama’s human resources director, and even tried to contact the news agency’s chairperson Ras Adiba Radzi, but it all fell on deaf ears.
‘Nonchalantly’ publishing internal reports
She also took issue with the agency’s internal report from the Human Resources Department that recommended legal action against her, which was circulated to the media.
“As a news agency that is a reference point for other media and the public, the actions and answers of Bernama’s CEO only reflect its weakness in managing internal affairs.
“Is it a practice to be nonchalant about publishing internal reports? If so, perhaps it could publish other internal reports involving other issues and employees,” she said.
Regardless, she reiterated that Bernama’s upper management had not been responsive to her previous attempts to raise staff welfare issues.
On Aug 5, Bernama announced that its 6pm Mandarin news programme would only air from Monday to Friday.
Following this, Yap wrote a lengthy explanation on her Facebook account, claiming that there were staffing issues due to low wages and wage cuts and delays in hiring due to bureaucracy.
Yap said that she was speaking out during her final days at the news agency in order to raise awareness of problems faced by the media.
The Bernama Mandarin News programme was once outsourced to a private company before it was absorbed by Bernama in 2019.
In her allegations, Yap said those who wished to continue working on the programme were forced to take pay cuts with “insignificant” increments in the following years.
She revealed that from a team of eight, Bernama Mandarin News was now down to three.
‘Not possible to stay 5 years’
Roslan, however, defended Bernama’s human resources practices.
He said contract staff get a pay raise every year when their tenure is renewed according to the government service guidelines, adding that it was normal for contract staff to not get promotions.
However, Roslan said that if Yap had waited and worked at Bernama until she had five years under the news agency, she could have been made a permanent staff member as had been done for over 70 Bernama TV employees since 2019.
To this, Yap alleged that basic salaries were only increased in 2021, and that staff were made to take pay cuts in 2019 and 2020.
She said their basic salary had been stagnant until last year since the Mandarin News programme was absorbed by Bernama, but noted that there were additional allowances.
Yap contended that it was not possible to work with the news agency for up to five years when it did not prioritise the welfare or its employees and took the issue of staff shortage for granted.
“The head of the Mandarin desk himself has given formal recommendations to promote existing staff to fill up more junior positions.
“But unfortunately, the Human Resources Department responded that the TV arm was undergoing an internal overhaul, despite the Mandarin desk experiencing a staff shortage crisis.
“Even worse, the Human Resources Department later stated that they never received the proposal!” she said.
Yap added that she was never involved in any meetings with Roslan, countering his claim that she had only smiled in meetings instead of raising the issue.
She said that she and other media personnel would willing to meet Roslan if he was sincere in his ask for a discussion, and will be present with legal representation.
A message from Bernama was circulated to the media on Aug 10 stating it would take legal action against the news presenter.
However, Roslan later said that they would prefer to talk the matter out instead. - Mkini
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