They 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.
There seems to be no solution to the woes at Standard Group Limited, particularly on the matter of monies owed to its employees. Now, its correspondents have declared their intention to down their tools from next week.
Viral Tea has learnt of a meeting that took place between the staffers which took place virtually on the evening of Tuesday, October 22, 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 this week, 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.
Inside Standard Group newsroom. /STANDARD DIGITAL
When Viral Tea reached out to a source privy to the matter, we were informed that the media house only settled salary arrears for September, with those for October and other arrears spanning over 10 months remaining unpaid. “The new CEO is nowhere to be seen close to a month now,” the source lamented.
Viral Tea has since obtained the letter from the Standard Group correspondents to the management, expressing their intention to discontinue their services at the media company from next week, citing their inability to press on considering the financial challenges they are currently experiencing.
“As you are all aware, many of us as well as our colleagues are stranded on the streets after being evicted from our rental houses. Others have had their families disintegrate due to the quagmire we are facing while some colleague’s children remain at home due to school fees challenges. Our children cry every day because of hunger, or due to failure to meet our part of the bargain to them,” reads the letter in part.
“Generally, we have been unable to meet our obligations to our families and significant others. These experiences have subjected many of us to psychological trauma which may be difficult to reverse at the moment or near future.”
The correspondents added that they understood the company’s desire to move forward at all costs, but it could not be justified that this continues at the expense of their lives.
“As you may have noticed lately, many of us have been unable to render our services effectively due to resource constraints. We don’t have fare to work, no data bundles or internet and those with laptops or computers, they already deposited them to shylocks to cater for food,” the letter continued, adding “We really love this great company and we have passion for the job but the constraints we are facing are limiting us at this level.”
This move presents 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.
As part of the reorganisation, the Standard was also reported to be putting in place measures to enable it to weather the challenges that the industry is currently grappling with including delays in settling pending bills owed to media companies by the government, changing media consumption behaviour and increased media fragmentation.
The directors of the 120-year-old Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed firm were bullish, noting that already the turnaround efforts put in place are bearing fruit and expect the firm to turn a profit in 2025.
Marion Gathoga-Mwangi, who took over as chief executive at Standard Group in August, assured shareholders of navigating the turbulent media industry and turning around the company.
“We remain dedicated to delivering high-quality content and services to an evolving audience. We do this by innovating and navigating the future with confidence,” she said at Standard Group’s 106th annual general meeting (AGM), adding “September outlook is extremely positive and we believe that in a short while, maybe in a year or so, we will come back to you in a good position by just taking these innovations a notch higher.”
It is a matter the content creators, some of them who 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. It is yet to be known if their woes were addressed.
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.
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.
Standard Group also made what many termed as a drastic move by shutting down KTN News, which was the number one 24-hour news channel in Kenya, and merging the news segment with KTN Home, a matter which saw most of the KTN News employees were let go, except a few who were absorbed by KTN Home in its various departments.
The media house on Tuesday, August 13 announced the resignation of veteran journalist Chaacha Mwita from its Board as a Non-Executive Director, which took effect on July 5, 2024. Towards the end of July, Standard Group announced its intention to declare over 300 employees across various departments redundant.
A photo of the KTN News Studios at Standard Group Limited. /KTN NEWS
