Eric Tsang on TVB Staff Reductions: “Executives Don’t Care”
Last week, TVB fired 50 employees despite healthy financial profits. Members of the TVB Staff Association protested in black-colored clothes in front of the station’s headquarters on September 25. At an event held in Macau that same day, Eric Tsang (曾志偉) criticized the station’s staff reductions for being unreasonable.
Alan Tam is Incredulous
At the promotional event were also Alan Tam (譚詠麟), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Hacken Lee (李克勤), and Patrick Tse (謝賢). Alan heard about the staff protest against TVB’s layoffs, but is unsure of the exact situation. It was rumored that TVB lost a great deal of money after covering the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Alan, who took part in TVB’s World Cup program, said, “We paid our air fares to Brazil. We didn’t use too much of TVB’s money!”
After realizing that Alan would hold a concert in Australia, TVB invited him to participate in a traveling program with Nat Chan (陳百祥) and Bennett Pang (彭健新), who were filming there at the same time. Alan said he did not receive any remuneration for his appearance. “[TVB] wanted to add more appeal! I definitely didn’t get paid for it! Maybe they’ll give me a TVBuddy doll, but I have plenty of those at home!”
TVB earned over $700 million HKD in profits in the first half of 2014. Alan found it incredulous that TVB still had to lay off 50 staff members. He said, “Something is going on behind the scenes!”
Eric Tsang Misses the Era of Sir Run Run Shaw
Eric Tsang and Michael Miu openly showed their support to the TVB staff by wearing black-colored clothes. They do not wish to see TVB to implement another round of layoffs. Eric said, “I’ve been with TVB for over 20 years. It’s like a big family to me. I feel awful. They just hired over 100 new staff earlier. Why are they firing 50 people now?”
Does Eric feel discouraged? “If you got sick, you’re fired. If you’re retiring next year, you’re fired. Why won’t [TVB] just switch them to a different department?” Eric confessed that he misses the time when TVB was under the direction of the late Sir Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫).
Rumors say that TVB’s new executive, Sandy Yu (余詠珊) had a hand in the layoffs. Eric said, “If we all grew up with each other, then we wouldn’t have this problem. [TVB executives] never grew up with them.” Eric felt that the layoffs were not prompted by the financial state of the station. Michael Miu said TVB is being heartless.
Source: stheadline.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
They are so heartless! They’ve earned so much from the ratings but yet they treat their staffs like trash. What a pity!
They learned this from the Americans.
US firms operating in Asia, if a company in one country made money for that year, they still can’t make a unilateral decision to reward their employees. They have to consult HQ in America or the regional head office. And if 2 other countries in the same region made little, then all 3 will have to bear the ‘loses’, and the one who profits won’t get anything.
American companies are also the first to lay off workers the moment the economy turn bad.
WOW TVB IS SO HEARTLESS FOR FIRING PEOPLE THAT WERE retiring next year. Doesn’t that mean they won’t get there retirement money cause they got fired before they retired?
Happened to me. So I can empathise with those TVB staff who were laid off.
TVB now knows who to fire next!
TVB CANT DO crap TO ERIC or those famous people ……it more like tvb need them
It won’t be Eric .. he will take his gang and go to any station he wishes for!
I find it’s incredible Alan have to pay for his own airfair while on assignment for TVB…I wonder if he have to pay for his own hotel too.
I’m glad Eric spoke out, seriously who would want to work for such a cheap company.
Alan wasn’t there on assignment. According to the article TVB learned he was going there for a separate concert and asked him to be in the travel show, so they didn’t have any costs. Really cheap on their part.
Littlegalpal is talking about the Brazil football coverage, not Australia.
Experienced workers are extremely expensive but they paid their dues to create the corporation it is right now. Not sure if the article over exaggerated but if it’s a true fire, then that means all accrued benefits are wiped out. That would be exactly what Alan said, “heartless.”
No one can make all the money in the world, everyone should exercise conscience.
“They just hired over 100 new staff earlier. Why are they firing 50 people now?”
True, experienced workers are expensive. The new workers are less expensive until they get experience. It’s the case of out with the old in with new. They have to move on to attract the generation Y cough cough! 😀 🙁 LOL!
TVB, it looks like too many chiefs not enough Indians. 😀 🙁 LOL!
No. 1
Increased wages of top actors contribute to lay offs. Eric and gang can help by decreasing their wages
No. 2
World Cup does not make money? News to me. Just an excuse. Stop wasting money on Miss HKs and pointless shows.
No. 3
Staff lay offs of which dept? That will tell you the purpose.
No. 4
When is TVB ever known as with heart?
Agree with all your comments. Who gets all the profits?
Increased wages of top actors?
You must be kidding. They ain’t earning enough at TVB already, thats why all fled to China.
Still want to decrease their salary? But continue to work them 7-days week, 18 hours a day???
Increased wages of top actors – well isn’t that reasonable considering their status. I mean you’d expect to get a pay rise when you get promoted at work, so why can’t top actors have increased wages? It’s the company ‘s expected expense. Even with their too actors earning more than those who aren’t of their acting level, you think they earn millions and millions were episode or something? Their wages aren’t that high if you compare it to other jobs, and compare it the amount of profit they make as a whole company. They have money to promote tvb overseas and advertise here and there , I don’t see how they’re running short of money enough to bring reason to laying off staff …
Should fire the Sandy instead, she’s ruining TVB’s reputation
tvb will NEVER care, its the only tv station that makes shows…u have no choice but to work there and no choice but to watch them
That’s why HK needs another TV station to rival it. That’s why HKTV should have been given the green light. Heartless or not TVB have been churning out a lot of dross for a while now really need some healthy competition. Just imagine if Eric or Michael got fired, where would they go? If HKTV stood they had a option but they don’t now and the people like Eric who stood against it would probably regret it now.
so called hktv can be the same. TVB at start was great (also because with a good boss), everyone was warm & friendly and treated their employees great. but as time passed, and because of other factors, they’ve changed, People, people of Hong Kong also changed. TVB was getting bigger & bigger, becoming a large corporation, with more employees & artists, it’s hard for them to treat everyone equal.
HKTV is small, but if they become huge like TVB, I guarantee they will definitely be as heartless.
TVB at start was great (also because with a good boss), everyone was warm & friendly and treated their employees great. but as time passed, and because of other factors, they’ve changed, People, people of Hong Kong also changed.
TVB was getting bigger & bigger, becoming a large corporation, with more employees & artists, it’s hard for them to treat everyone equal.
HKTV is small, but if they become huge like TVB, I guarantee they will definitely be as heartless.
TVB was getting bigger & bigger, becoming a large corporation, with more employees & artists, it’s hard for them to treat everyone equal.
HKTV is starting small, but if they become huge like TVB, I guarantee they will definitely be as heart-less.
HKTV is starting small, but if they become huge like TVB, I guarantee they will definitely be as hard-hearted
Eric the Tai Ko have himself to blame for campaigning against rival TV-station licenses.
i think eric and michael dont need tvb to survive they already have earn enough to live a comfortable life without working,but if they want they have enough connections to find another new job. seriously tvb needs more eric and michael than they needs tvb. especially eric with his connections and power in the entertainment industry would be a great lost for tvb.
Eric definitely does NOT need TVB! With his status and clout (and his connections) in the entertainment industry (and not just in HK but also across all of Asia pretty much), he can do and say whatever he wants and TVB can’t do a thing about it….basically, he’s one of the few artists left in the industry who can criticize TVB and get away with it without suffering any repercussions (which, in all honesty, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. …)
That is just ridiculous!!!!! seriously??? TVB has been lost a lot of good actress during the past years is just not good at all like TVB used to have a lot of good actress e.g Bowie lam,Steven Ma,Tavia Yeung…and many more of good artists!!!!!!~~~~but now….not much!!!!! TVB is just forcing to have new actress to take the lead of each film such as Grace Chan,Sisley Choi!!!! and so on….
To the TVB executives and its shareholders, the improvement, profitability and survival of TVB is more important than any single mere employee. Organization NEEDs to cut away people that doesn’t perform and reward those that does. How else will TVB improve and survive in today’s competitive market? Can’t do that with all those dead meats hanging around.
It is easy for someone,like Eric, that doesn’t have this responsibility to do these cheap criticism.
what competitive market? tvb still has a monopoly on tv market,moreover they makes millions of profits,so what survive? and how do you know they are hanging around? do you hanging around with them all day?
there are many forms of competitive entertainments. If TVB is losing viewers and view times to radio, internet, and newspapers then these are its competitors. If good actors are leaving TVB because of low pay then TVB is losing potential to its competitors.
Again, if you can’t perform in your company or organize then you will get lay offed. This is how it works in the real world.
do you think if tvb fired this 50 employees will help them gain back the viewers? i doubt it. i dont think they are the cause that tvb structuraly loosing viewership over the years.they are not the one who leads the company,the managers are.what is low payment? if you compare it with mainland yes it is low.but you simply cant compete with them because the mainland market is 1000 times bigger than hk. i dont know if they are performing or not but if you have worked for a company for many years and the company makes profits then i think there are other ways to walk and not necessary to be fired.
@Tom: I’m actually kind of offended at your “dead meat” comment. Keep in mind that we are talking about layoffs here, which is completely different from firing or resigning. Laying someone off doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with performance. ..the person could be the best performing employee who rakes in the most money for the company – yet they could still be laid off merely because the company needs to tighten its expenses. So to call those who got laid off as “dead meats” and imply that they somehow deserve to be let go is really uncalled for….
By the way…to answer someone else’s question above — most of those who got laid off were from the children’s programming department — which has led people to speculate that the finances thing was just an excuse and this has to do with politics due to Helen Tam Yuk Ying’s firing a few month’s back(for people who don’t know who she is, she was the “iconic” host of TVB’s children programming for over 30 years).
It wasn’t my intention to insult the people that got layed off as I don’t even know who they are. However, “dead meat” is merely a term to describe people that dosen’t perform up to standard and are holding the team back.
TVB is not a charity. An employee’s performance is graded at what they are doing now at the organization, not what they did in the past, 30 years or 60 years. If someone or a program is not contributing to the organization in a positive way then that person or program needs to be cut or replaced. That is the reality.
However, the company has profits last year and this year. They cannot just use the excuse of economic crisis to lay off people.
Company needs to improve all the time, restructure if necessary, even if it is making profit; less painful that way. When you are losing tons of money and are dying then it might be too late.
I used to love watching tvb series but I stopped watching it for 2 years now. I found their scripts are terribly written and their characters are annoying to watch. Tvb is no longer the same as before and its only getting worse. I understand everyone thinks and cares about themselves in the first place but to laid off 50 experienced staffs just to avoid paying more to them is ridiculously heartless. Can’t believe this is coming out from the biggest tvb station in HK. One word to describe “SHAME” on the station!!!
Wow funny thing you stopped watching for 2 yrs yet still bother to follow the entertainment news
That’s because I still like the artises. I want know read news about them. I used to be a big fan of tvb series in the 80s and 90s but I slowly lost interest in their plots.
It’s a shame to see this company going down this road besides their series quality is just getting worse and worse. More than half of their series this year wasn’t good and only a couple of them are decent but still has it’s flaws.
I think they fired a lot of those that are working behind the scenes and honestly I don’t understand their work ethics or at least how they think it’s considered reasonable. Their employees barely make much anyways.
going down TVB!
Just get rid of sandy
It isnt hard to see that after Sandy Yu joins TVB, everything go down rapidly. The company has profits and the old employees are fired? What kind of logic is that? The rating of TVB programs went down significantly and we know that online viewers shouldnt be the only blamed ones.
I doubt the eyes on talent of Sandy as well. Look at her favourite artists, who can make big despite all the promotions?
Simple.
New people cost lesser salary. To hell with experience or loyalty from either side. BUT maybe these people have bad working record? You can’t just fire. It must be according to labour laws and HK does have one I presume.
150 people with bad working record?
In fact, if an employer want to fire an employee, there are many ways they can use. TVB took one: To close some programs and as a result, the people working for those programs will be fired. On the other hand, they also have some kinds of treatment to pull the employees out such as assigning them more jobs than they can do and when they cant bear the heavy schedule, they will make mistake and got fired.
Funn lim is right you need to fire someone according to labor laws. But yet again @Alluka you can always find a excuse low on budget or program closed and etc.
Agree with what Funn said. Maybe they can give any type of excuse, like restructuring the company as profits are comparatively lower than previous years due to online piracy and lack of sales in dvds, changes in consumer taste for everything korean – korea drama. Probably also depends on who did the firing – person probably playing politics, firing those people he/she doesn’t like or who doesn’t side with him.
Can they fire 620 and Sandy?
620 should been fire A VERY LONG TIME AGO!
Tvb isn’t exactly known for its “heartware” is it? So this news is hardly surprising.
TVB is actually blaming on piracy from the overseas that fewer people is watching. Lower advertisements rates. They want to downsize the work force and cheap pay.
TVB is still a mismanage company.
There may be some truth in the piracy excuse.
Thats one small excuse.
maybe if people dont need to pay extra to view the current airing series overseas, they dont need to pirate.
TVB is rip off since its way to expansive to pay monthly subscription rate for a few channels.
A lot of people are watching the set top boxes like TVPad.
Untill TVB lowers the price at a reasonable rate… maybe some viewers will go back and resubscribe to TVB pay channel…. Still, TVB is not TVB before.