The Standard Media Group PLC threatened to fire all radio presenters from Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Berur FM and Vybez Radio after they stormed out of their stations due to salary delays.
The management addressed the journalists who had converged at the staff cafeteria and threatened to terminate contracts should they not go back to their workstations.
Standard Media Group radio employees on Thursday, July 4, made good their threat to down tools due to salary arrears dating back to June 2023.
The employees drawn from Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Berur FM and Vybez Radio had on June 28, threatened to go off air if the management failed to clear the arrears.
With management not heeding their plea, the journalists staged a walkout from their respective workstations and converged at the staff cafeteria.
By the time of publishing this article, it was reported that the radio presenters had been at the cafeteria since 7 am but the management was yet to come out to address their concerns.
All radio stations were left playing music with no presenter on air as they demanded the management to honour their contractual agreements.
According to the radio employees, they have not been paid for the months between June to August 2023.
In 2024, the employees had allegedly only been paid for the month of February.
In their demand letter signed June 2024, the journalists had asked to be paid their June 2024 salary by Tuesday, July 2.
For the other months, the employees asked Standard Media Group to pay 30 per cent of the arrears every month until the amount is cleared in full.
“Kindly note that in the event of non-payment as proposed above, all programming will be off air on July 3, on all 4 radio stations until our plight is addressed and a commitment from your end is issued in writing,” the employees had earlier warned.
The media station has been suffering economic challenges with frequent mass layoffs and retrenchments.
Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU-K) boss Francis Atwoli had previously indicated that he had spoken to Gideon Moi - the company's largest shareholder - about paying the outstanding salaries.
Surprisingly, Atwoli remarked that he did not aggressively push for the issue to be addressed arguing that he did not want to be seen as fighting for his wife who works for the company.
