Exclusive: Tears as fired K24 journalists told to wait 2 to 3 years for unpaid salaries

Tony Mukere

June 22, 2020 9:56 AM

Fired K24 journalists have not been paid for the last 3 months and will wait till October 2022

Exclusive: Tears as fired K24 journalists told to wait 2 to 3 years for unpaid salaries

Mediamax Network Limited has delivered a second set of bad news after it fired its entire newsroom staff at the broadcast television station K24.

The affected staff were notified of their dismissal last night, some as late as 2am on Monday morning.

Pulse Live Kenya can authoritatively report that on top of the pain of being fired, the K24 staff was left in tears after learning that their unpaid salaries and accrued dues would also be delayed for between two and three years once they sign the redundancy documents today.

The K24 staff has not been paid their salaries over the past three months and many were hoping that the monies would be paid at the point of contract termination, together with the accrued benefits.

However, one of the journalists who graced the appointment on Monday morning warned colleagues not to sign the documents neither pick them since they would have to wait for as long as three years to receive their payments.

The dismissal letter, however, gave Mediamax the upper hand as it indicated that it would pay the staff dues over a period of 28 to 40 months which means the earliest the dues would be paid is October 2022 and as late as October 2023.

The message indicated that the staff were let go after their positions became redundant.

However, in an unprecedented development, K24 has hired a new set of employees to take up the very jobs the fired staff had been doing.

"Hi. This is Robert from HR. I am contacting you with regards to the redundancy notice issued on 21st of May 2020. The notice period has expired. Unfortunately your position has been affected by way of redundancy. I would like to invite you to Emory hotel in Kileleshwa tomorrow, Monday 22 at 12.25pm to discuss what this means to your employment. When you get to the hotel kindly ask for me. We thank you for your indulgence and cooperation in this matter," the company's HR said in an sms sent on Sunday night.

Some of the popular faces that were let go include news anchors Rose Gakuo, Fred Indimuli, Eric Njoka, Sam Njoroge, Karen Karimi, Isabella Kituri, Nancy Onyancha, Caren Kibett, Shon Osimbo, Sara Adams, Joy Kariuki, Joab Mwaura and Tony Khwalanda.

Mediamax is owned by the family of President Uhuru Kenyatta and operates K24 tv station, Kameme TV, the People Daily, among other vernacular fm stations.

Tony Mukere