Utusan Melayu ordered to pay two months’ bonus to employees

0

KUALA LUMPUR: Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Berhad which owns Utusan Malaysia was ordered by the Industrial Court to pay backdated two months’ bonus to its employees for 2009.

Industrial Court president Susila Sithamparam in her award handed down on May 24, held that the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) which brought the case to the court had proved that Utusan Melayu had made profit in 2009.

She said Utusan Melayu had declared its group profit for 2009 at RM5.121 million in its audited statement of accounts for 2009 in its Annual Report.

“The respondent (Utusan Melayu) cannot shy away from the fact that it is a holding company and has subsidiary companies.

The court held that the word ‘keuntungan’ or ‘profit’ in Article 44 of the said collective agreement meant the profit which it made as a holding company in 2009.

“The union has proved that the respondent (Utusan Melayu) had made profit in 2009,” she said.

Susila ordered Utusan Melayu to comply with Article 44 of the said collective agreement forthwith.

“Since the respondent has paid its employees an ex-gratia sum of one month’s wages each for 2009, it may deduct the sum which had been paid from the bonus of two months’ wages which is to be paid to its employees for 2009,” she said.

The union had brought the matter to the court on March 23, last year, after Utusan Melayu did not pay its employees a bonus of two months’ wages for 2009, on the grounds that it had losses of RM26,169,490 as an individual company as at Dec 31, 2009.

However, the company had given its employees an ex-gratia payment of one month’s wages each for 2009.

The union took the case to court for an order of non-compliance with Article 44 of the collective agreement dated Sept 5, 2006 between the NUJ and Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd.

NUJ secretary general V Anbalagan in a statement yesterday, expressed hope that the Utusan Melayu management would carefully study the award and make all outstanding payments due to its employees in the spirit of industrial harmony.

He said members from Utusan Melayu were one of the lowest paid among the eight branches affiliated to the NUJ. — Bernama