i-Cable sacks 40 employees, HR department blamed

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Hong Kong television news station i-Cable has laid off 40 staff from its news section, including journalists, camera operators and production workers, it was reported on RTHK.

I-Cable stated that a total of 100 staff out of its 1300-strong workforce were being laid off or deployed to other positions, citing the pandemic as a major contributing factor.

The redundancies were announced during an editorial meeting on Tuesday morning – after which those who were made redundant were told to leave their Tsuen Wan office with immediate effect.

But when i-Cable senior management were asked on what basis the sackings were determined, they attempted to shift the responsibility to the HR department saying that it was their decision, it was reported in The Standard.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association has taken issue with the layoffs.

“All three reporters responsible for News Lancet were fired after the team published reports related to the police and the regime in the past year, which makes people think that the company is trying to reduce or even cut sensitive reports under the name of cutting costs,” it said.

Also read: Making redundancies during turbulent times

“Redundancies not only hamper the morale of employees but also jeopardise the editorial quality. Therefore media operators should think twice and refrain from implementing dismissals or pay cuts if possible,” the association added.

Image: The Standard