Management of Hong Kong’s cash-strapped ATV vow utmost effort to pay salaries after angry staff told to wait another month
A rep for the broadcaster’s new investor Si Rongbin said the tycoon criticised the news department for reporting on the delayed remuneration
With a promise to settle unpaid wages by Friday, the management of cash-strapped Asia Television yesterday managed to avert a mass walkout by staff that would have suddenly shut down the station.
The struggling broadcaster said it would do its “utmost” to pay the station’s staff their December and January salaries by Friday, hours after some angry staff stormed out of a meeting in protest when told they needed to wait another month.
Members of ATV’s remaining employees – estimated to number about 300 – crossed fire with management yesterday when Jan He, representing ATV’s new investor Si Rongbin, told them to wait for another month to get paid.
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The representative also quoted Si as criticising ATV’s news department for airing news of the station’s delayed remuneration, saying the negative coverage tarnished the station’s values.
“The staff from the news department were really angry as the statement interfered with press freedom,” an ATV employee said.
Only those who made less than HK$15,000 a month had received their December pay, and no staff had yet received salary for January.
Hours later, ATV’s chief operations officer Charles Ma Hay met the staff at another meeting, telling them he would do his best to ensure the staff were paid.
“Before the meeting, Mr Ma had met our new investor Mr Si Rongbin,” an ATV spokesman said. “He conveyed the situation the company faced to Mr Si. Mr Ma also told the staff in the meeting that he would do his utmost to pay them their December and January wages by this Friday.”
An ATV staff member who had worked at the station for about 15 years said:“I will wait until Friday. If I still don’t get paid, I will consider leaving,” adding that the investors had shown “no sincerity in running the station” and that there was no plan for “how to run it”.
As of Monday, ATV suspended its morning and noon newscasts.
The Communications Authority said it was very concerned about the incident. A spokesman said ATV did not advise it of any broadcasting suspension or liquidation. He added that the authority had repeatedly reached out to the station and urged it to comply with its licensing terms, noting its licence was due to expire on April 1.
Meanwhile,commerce minister Greg So Kam-leung said Fantastic TV – the free-to-air branch of i-Cable – had asked the Executive Council for a third deadline extension as it made licensing preparations.
The new deadline would be on March 18, but So declined to say whether the licensing decision would be withdrawn should the station miss the deadline again.
Fantastic TV said it would submit supplementary documents in accordance with the Communications Authority’s requirements after completing corporate restructuring, which involved no changes to the investment proposal.
Additional reporting by Vivienne Chow
