Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) manager, worried that a planned staff strike will paralyise its operations and hit ratings ahead of elections, today summoned a board meeting to forestall the industrial action by journalists and technical operators after staff rejected a proposal to raise salaries by Sh10,000 or 40 per cent.
Today’s meeting was a follow-up to a weekend-long board meeting to sort out the mess at KBC’s newroom, where some staff who are neither employed nor on internship, called in the newsroom as artists, work for a monthly pay of Sh16,000 for diploma holders and Sh19,000 for graduates. These are the people who painfully file stories for the state-owned media house, helped by an army of interns that the company generously takes in KIMC.
Disgruntled KBC staff plan to down tools on February 23 to press for full-scale reforms at the state broadcaster and better pay. “Things are serious,” said a KBC TV staff moments ago. “There have been board meetings and today they met again. But we wonder why they are coming in now when they were petitioned in November last year.
The person said the mood at KBC is thick with anticipation for the strike, which most employees have vowed to go on with if their demands are not met. The insider said KBC employees are pushing for their salaries to be evened with their colleagues in other parastatals such as Kenya Instute of Education, where transport allowance ranges between Sh15,000 to Sh25,000 compared to Sh2,000 to Sh17,000 at KBC.
The source said former KBC boss David waweru, who was hounded out of office over a single-sourced World Cup football broadcast rights deal with Radio Africa, focused on building marketing team and “forgot the newsroom team.”
The major issue was initially the poor working conditions at the taxpayer financed broadcaster. “We work with outdated equipment and even studio. We are not even given transport from work whe you work late and the logistics here are terrible. Just some and have a look at our newsroom, walls and roofs are threatening to fall down.”
(BUSINESS TODAY, working with the JACKAL NEWS, will take the trouble to visit KBC and bring you the tru picture of thjings inside there, watch this space)
“We have issued a notice to the government and the KBC management of our intention to go on strike on February 23 a staffer told BUSINESS TODAY last week. “The management has ignored our earlier communication to them. That is why we took the decision to issue a strike notice.”
According to a memorandum by the staff to the management, the company had resorted to victimising and intimidating those who raise concerns over working conditions and pay. “As you may be aware, a memorandum was served to your office on the 6th day of December 2011 and so far no communication has been heard from your office.
That instead of responding to the concerns raised by employees the management has resorted to victimization and intimidation of those who are now deemed to have actively contributed in the raising of the genuine concerns As a result we the employees of the corporation would like to state as follows.
That the office of the Attorney General and that of the Commission for Implementation of the Constitution give their interpretation on the statutes of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation as recognised by article 34( 4) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.
That the low salary in the corporation is partly attributable to a large number of employees who have no requisite certificates and who were brought in the Corporation through nepotism and or cronyism. That the same law salaries has contributed in the corporation being a training ground therefore failing its obligation under article 230 (5) (b) of the constitution that calls public institution to attract people with requisite skills to discharge their mandate.
That if the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s managing director gets the same salaries and perks of office as managing directors of other government parastatals or department there is no reason why workers under him should not be paid like worker in those other parastatals That as a consequence the employees of the corporation would like the vetting of all the board members and employees of the corporation.
