Standard Media Group Employees Stage Protest Over Unpaid Salaries

On Wednesday afternoon, employees of Standard Media Group halted their work, demanding the media house settle their overdue salary arrears in full.

According to a source who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke, the employees initiated a go-slow at 12:30 pm, disrupting the station’s 1:00 pm bulletin.

The source confirmed that over 40 staff members attended a meeting at Green Park Grounds within Standard Media Group’s Mombasa Road headquarters. During the meeting, employees resolved to visit every office and remove everyone from their workstations.

“The team started at KTN Home, moved to the HR office, then to the convergence newsroom, followed by the output section, and eventually to the radio and TV studios,” the source disclosed.

This protest disrupted a live bulletin hosted by Jesse Rodgers, forcing the news anchor to take a break at around 1:07 pm after presenting only one news item. The bulletin did not resume afterward.

The employees demand the full settlement of all their payments and clearance of arrears. This protest follows a similar incident on Thursday, July 4, when radio employees from Radio Maisha, Spice FM, Berur FM, and Vybez Radio downed tools over salary arrears dating back to June 2023.

During that protest, presenters walked out of their workstations and gathered at the staff cafeteria from 7:00 am, leaving all radio stations playing music with no presenters on air, as they demanded the management honor their contractual agreements.

Additionally, the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) had given the media house a 14-day ultimatum to meet four demands or face a total shutdown of operations.

The demands included settling seven months of salary arrears, providing Sacco savings contributed by employees, removing the cap on medical claims, and halting the enforcement of biometric data collection for 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.