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Ex-Standard Group Employees Preparing To Invade Offices Over Pay Crisis

Standard Group employees are grappling with unpaid dues, unremitted contributions, and prolonged financial hardships, a matter which has now drawn the attention of their former colleagues

The troubles at the more-than-century-old Standard Group Limited are set to intensify as former employees are reported to be preparing to visit their former employer’s offices along Mombasa Road this Thursday, November 28.

Standard Group employees are grappling with unpaid dues, unremitted contributions, and prolonged financial hardships, a matter which has now drawn the attention of their former colleagues in a fresh push to demand the media house to address the needs of its workers.

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Viral Tea has obtained a media invite calling upon media houses to attend a press briefing by the former staff of the media house on November 28 at 10 am, outside the Standard Group Main Entrance on Mombasa Road.

It is during this presser that the ex-staffers will issue a statement demanding immediate action and settlement of the delayed salary arrears, unremitted statutory deductions, and unpaid redundancy packages.

Inside Standard Group newsroom. /STANDARD DIGITAL

“The affected former employees, along with their lawyers and representatives, will outline the financial and social hardships caused by the Standard Group’s failure to meet its legal obligations, thereby imperilling their healthcare, education, and basic livelihoods. They will also call for action by the relevant government agencies on their plight,” read the media invite in part.

They listed four key issues they want to be addressed, starting with non-payment of redundancy packages in breach of Section 40 of The Employment Act 2007 and unpaid salary arrears covering several months in 2023 and 2024 in breach of Section 18 (5) (a) of The Employment Act 2007. The first two issues have been the biggest bone of contention within Standard Group, with ravaging financial woes seeing employees going more than a year without their dues.

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The staffers will also aim to address unremitted deductions to statutory bodies like NHIF, NSSF, and private pension and insurance schemes and the “attendant impunity the management of The Standard Group has exhibited.”

“Transparency and accountability in regards to Sacco funds and monthly remittances which have been illegally withheld for over 3 years by the former employer in total disregard of the SASRA rules and regulations,” added the statement.

The company is believed to have failed to honour a one-year redundancy payment plan as was the agreement when some of the employees had their contracts terminated. Some of the disgruntled former employers have intimated that the company owes them salaries to the tune of hundreds of thousands.

On Tuesday, October 22, Viral Tea got wind of details of intentions by correspondents to down their tools. A meeting took place between the staffers virtually, with five deliberations made on the matter in question, which is almost two years old.

The correspondents had endeavoured to unite as a team in agitating for their payment rights, stating that it was their right to be paid their dues irrespective of the employment arrangement they were in. 

They decried that if no money is deposited in their accounts by Friday, October 25, they would plan to down tools in one accord this time round, affirming that they should follow the example of other workers in other sectors.

According to them, they ought to do away with the spirit of fear which has seen their bosses refusing to listen to their plight as they go through difficulties. Many of the correspondents lamented going through untold sufferings, evictions, disintegration of families, school fees and food dilemmas, just to name a few, arguing that their pleas towards the management of the Mombasa Road-based media house fell on deaf ears.

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These two moves present tougher challenges for Standard Group as it is fighting to maintain the current workforce amidst significant financial challenges. It cannot tolerate losing some of its special talent as this would translate to less quality of work from the media house’s TV, radio, newspaper and digital channels which would lead to less appeal from its audience.

Moreover, with its rivals actively hunting for fresh talent in their media companies, some promising better pay packages, this is one matter they feel cannot let happen, even though inevitable going by current events.

If that’s not bad enough, the media house has also been put on the spot by content creators who have also called out the company for failing to pay them their dues. In September, Standard Group’s shareholders deliberated on the firm’s plan to raise Ksh1.5 billion through a rights issue, the funds expected to strengthen the media company’s balance sheet to be able to take advantage of emerging digital growth opportunities as part of an ongoing reorganisation by the media firm.

It is a matter the content creators, some of them who previously spoke to Viral Tea, raised issues with as they intensified pressure on the media house to settle their arrears in exchange for their creative skills in showcasing the media firm.

Staff at the media house have been vocal about their plight, using organisations such as the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) and the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) to air their grievances and demand immediate action from the management.

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On July 4, Standard Group employees from Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Berur FM and Vybez Radio downed their tools, making good their earlier threat to do so over salary arrears going as far back as June 2023.

However, in response, 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 in the event they did not go back to their workstations. 

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Standard Media Group offices along Mombasa Road. /STANDARD DIGITAL

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