No winners in staff disputes
The satellite TV station I founded, China Entertainment Television Broadcast Ltd (CETV,) has a
secure future now that Time Warner has come on board
as a partner. In its earlier days, CETV had more than
its fair share of financial problems. At one stage I
had to make half the staff redundant. This has been
widely reported in the media. There have been false
reports and rumours suggesting that I did not pay my
staff or cut their salaries. This "For the Record" section
aims to set the record straight.
I would like to point out that everyone who worked at
CETV was paid in full what they were owed. And throughout
the recent Asian recession, while companies were cutting
salaries and benefits just because their margins were
squeezed, I never cut wages. Although CETV was on the
verge of closing down many times, everyone was paid
in full.
I admit salaries were sometimes paid late. This resulted
in a group of employees taking the company to the Labour
Court. Under Hong Kong Labour Law they would only be
compensated for their term of service if they were terminated,
not in the case of resignation, so they went to Court
claiming the late payment amounted to dismissal. It
was not a case of winning or losing. I just paid them
what they were owed.
In the end the staff who took the company to court suffered
because many have still not been able to find full time
employment. Had they remained loyal and supported the
company they would still have jobs. By going for the
quick windfall of full compensation for time served
they have effectively traded their jobs for a one-off
payment. It must have also hurt their self esteem to
nearly drive the company into bankruptcy.
Staff disputes always cast the company concerned in
a negative light in the eyes of the public. You need
to consider the real issues. Any salary cut or redundancy
done for the sake of a company's survival should be
supported in my opinion. Once the company is on a more
secure financial footing, staff made redundant can be
reemployed.
Staff made redundant should consider the reason they
were asked to leave. If an entire department has been
scrapped, then the redundancy is probably not related
to any past performance of the employees. On the other
hand if the number working in a department has been
cut, then those made redundant tend to be the poor performers.
The lesson for me from this staff dispute was that nobody
ends up winning.