Viscion pay dispute widens

Singapore - The wages claim against Viscion Media Group, as reported by mainstream media this morning, is understood by Marketing to run deeper than initially thought.

Apart from freelancers who have commenced legal action against the publisher, which owns magazines including Lexean, Playeur, Smitten and 6YardBox and the axed, for now, Beauty Black Book, former full-time employees spoken to by Marketing claim they also have not been paid in full.

Marketing understands some ex-staffers of Viscion have aired their grievances at the Small Claims Tribunal and earlier this year the Central Provident Fund (CPF) also contacted Viscion Media, as it was not receiving the employer’s contributions. The publisher fulfilled the mandatory clauses with the government agency to pay the amount owed to their former employees, but they allegedly still have not received their missing salaries, commission and claims.

Former Viscion employee Lau Yu Jin, currently business development manager at Tricom Events, who was handling the sales for all of the Viscion titles until late May this year, said the amount owed to him - his basic pay and sales commission - has yet to be settled.

To date about two freelancers have managed to get the publisher to pay the entire amount outstanding for their bills issued to the company. The settlement however allegedly did not come easy for one of the freelancers, a photographer who did two shoots for the magazines, Smitten and Playeur.

“For any startup cash flow issues are inevitable, and most of us who have worked with the magazine are aware and understand that fact. The breaking point was the attitude the company took. We had to initiate meet ups with the company to clear the issues but they took their time to contact us and most of the time chose to avoid communication with us,” a source that declined to be named said.

Marketing understands beauty Black Book suffered several staff departures earlier this year including former deputy editor, special projects; Jasmine Alimin, now beauty editor at CR Media’s L’Officiel.

Holman Chin, Viscion Media’s general manager, said August was the last edition for Beauty Black Book, but the magazine may be resurrected in the future.

Chin said Viscion shut down the magazine because it was “too intense” for the Singaporean market.

“The market wasn’t ready for it,” he said.

Chin declined to comment on the alleged disputed wage claims.