I-Cable Staff Protest Latest Dismissal Of Colleagues

More than a hundred staff members at i-Cable News have signed a petition demanding an explanation to the immediate dismissal of three of who they call “experienced and dedicated” colleagues.

In an open letter published on Saturday, the group of staff said they are shocked and furious about the sacking of the three colleagues from the engineering department – who, they said, are “core members of the editorial team” who had been serving the news station since it was established over two decades ago and still took part in editorial meetings every day.

The staff added that it’s worrying that the new directors and managers of the department – who stepped into their positions less than a month ago – claimed to have no knowledge about the sacking beforehand.

The current managerial team of the department have stressed that the departure of the trio would have no impact on the running of i-Cable news, but the letter said the staff found that hardly convincing.

The staff said the departure of the three would be an “irretrievable loss” to the company, adding morale had been seriously hampered – after the company abruptly removed the news department's head a fortnight ago and then decided to sack the three senior staff on Friday.

The staff who've signed the petition include those from the engineering department, editors at local news desks, reporters working for finance news and sports.

It urged the company’s chairman David Chiu, and its chief financial officer Kwok Chi-kin , to come clean over the incidents and explain whether the company has any further plans to cut staff.

The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association also expressed concern over the incident, urging media companies to avoid cutting staff as much as possible and maintain dialogue with their employees.

In response, i-Cable said the departure of three staff is the result of a regular review on their human resources and adjustment to their structure. It added that the news station has given the three staff reasonable and sufficient compensation in accordance with the law.