Thursday, September 20, 2007
Chan - No Chance of VSS Author or Last edited by: Jenny Ong

Chan Ngow, Managing Director of Formis Resources Berhad (Formis) was quoted in today’s New Straits Times page 42 “VSS is being considered as we want to cut down on our workforce but it is not put in place yet.”  This statement was purportedly made after Formis’ 7th Annual General Meeting held on 19th September 2007.

However, Chan clarified with a full context of his statement this afternoon. Chan began: “I would like to first of all abate any concern amongst our staff on this issue of VSS.” According to Chan, the reporter raised questions about VSS. Chan, however, did not mention VSS in his answer. Chan’s actual statement was: “What we were trying to do is to streamline our operations, and cut down on manpower operations. However, it is not put in place and there is no time frame to such plan.”

Presently, the Group’s strategy on streamlining staff force is to allow for “natural attrition”. This simply means, when an employee leaves the Group, his/her position is not immediately replaced. The existing position is re-assessed. If there is still a need for replacement, the Group will look at the existing pool of human resources for redeployment or look for new hire.

Thursday, September 20, 2007 6:52:36 AM (Malay Peninsula Standard Time, UTC+08:00)
#    Comments [1]  | 
Friday, September 21, 2007 12:55:01 AM (Malay Peninsula Standard Time, UTC+08:00)
The issue seems to be semantic. One can easily imagine the interview to be such...

Question: Is the group resorting to VSS?
Answer: What we were trying to do is to streamline our operations, and cut down on manpower operations. However, it is not put in place and there is no time frame to such plan.

The 'it' in that last sentence must have been misinterpreted by the reporter as referring to VSS.

In order to correct this misunderstanding, the managing director should demand an errata or even an apology be printed in the Business Times. Journalistic integrity and reputation is at stake here.

Kenny Fong
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