This comes as all employees at the Mombasa Road-based media house, in photos that went viral on social media, reportedly walked out of the office as a show of solidarity
Standard Group Limited will have its entire operations paralysed from midnight tonight after the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) urged all employees to keep off work and peacefully protest outside their nearest workstations.
In a statement seen by Viral Tea, KUJ Secretary General, Erick Oduor announced that the 14-day strike notice over accumulated salary arrears and non-remittance of Sacco funds deducted from staff salaries over the past two years expires on Wednesday, July 17.
“Unfortunately, there is no deal on our demand. 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,” the statement read in part.
Standard Group employees outside their offices on July 17, 2024. /KINYAN BOY
“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!”
Standard Group was previously compelled by KUJ to come up with an acceptable payment plan to clear the arrears, failure to which the staff will not only withdraw their services but also begin auctioning prime assets of the company to recover the funds, a move that could take centre stage when the deadline elapses.
This comes as all employees at the Mombasa Road-based media house, in photos that went viral on social media, reportedly walked out of the office as a show of solidarity after they downed their tools on Wednesday afternoon, demanding that their salary arrears be settled in its entirety by the media house.
The workforce was revealed to have been on a go-slow since 12.30 pm, with operations during the 1.00 pm bulletin brought to a halt.
According to sources privy to the matter, a meeting was held at Green Park Grounds inside Standard Group’s Mombasa Road headquarters, attended by more than 40 staffers who reportedly resolved to take radical action by visiting every single office and removing everyone from their workstations.
The team began at KTN Home, moved to the Human Resources (HR) office then to the convergence newsroom then to output, and eventually to radio and TV studios, all while disrupting a live news bulletin hosted by Jesse Rodgers.
Rodgers, a news anchor, was forced to take a short break at around 1.07 pm having presented one news item. However, the bulletin did not resume after that.
Previously, Standard Group’s staff drawn from Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Berur FM, and Vybez Radio threatened to go off air starting July 3 if the company failed to clear outstanding salaries.
In a letter addressed to the Standard Group PLC management, the radio team complained that they had not been paid salaries for the period between June to August 2023 and February to June 2024.
However, the media house threatened to fire all radio presenters from the radio stations following the walkout, with the management addressing the journalists who had converged at the staff cafeteria, and threatened to terminate contracts should they not go back to their workstations.Â
Standard Media Group offices along Mombasa Road. /STANDARD DIGITAL