Standard Media Group employees on Wednesday afternoon downed their tools demanding the media house to settle their salary arrears in full.
A source close to the matter told Kenyans.co.ke that the workforce went on a go slow at 12:30 pm and paralysed the station's 1:00 pm bulletin.
Our source confirmed that north of 40 people attended a meeting that was held at Green Park Grounds inside Standard Media Group's Mombasa Road headquarters.
During the meeting, the employees reportedly resolved to visit every office and remove everyone from their workstations.
"The team started at KTN Home, moved to the HR office then to convergence newsroom then to output, and eventually to radio and TV studios," our source revealed.
In the process, they disrupted a live bulletin hosted by Jesse Rodgers, forcing the news anchor to take a short break at around 1:07 pm after presenting only one news item. The bulletin did not resume after that.
According to our source, the employees want all their payments settled in full and arrears cleared.
In a statement, the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) to stay away from work and peacefully picket outside the nearest work station beginning midnight tonight.
The protest follows an earlier version on Thursday, July 4, when radio employees from Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Berur FM, and Vybez Radio downed tools due to salary arrears dating back to June 2023.
"The 14-day notice elapses today at midnight, paving the way for all staff at Standard Group PLC to commence the strike to fight for their rights in accordance with Article 41 of the Constitution," KUJ directed its members who work at the station.
"Staff are hereby urged to stay away from work and peacefully picket outside the nearest work station to demand payment of accumulated salary arrears and remittance of Sacco funds deducted from their salaries over the past two years. These are our irreducible minimum and the strike will continue until they are addressed. Solidarity forever!"
During the July protests, the presenters staged a walkout from their respective workstations and converged at the staff cafeteria from 7:00 am.
All radio stations were left playing music with no presenter on air as they demanded the management honour their contractual agreements.
Days earlier, the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) had given the media house 14 days to meet four demands failure to which it threatened to force a total shutdown of operations.
The four demands presented were settlement of 7-month salary arrears, provision of Sacco savings contributed by its employees, and removal of a cap on medical claims.
The union also wanted the station to stop capturing the biometric data of staff to enforce a new directive on reporting time.
"For seven months now, staff at the Standard Group PLC, the oldest media house in this part of the world, have gone through untold sufferings due to unpaid salaries despite hard economic times in the country," Eric Oduor, KUJ Secretary General, told the press at the time.
