K24 employees have appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to help them after being mistreated at work.
In the letter, the employees have narrated their suffering in the media company.
They claim Mediamax CEO Ken Ngaruiya ambushed them with 50% salary cuts 19 days into the month of April without prior warning.
Moreover, when they went to court to stop the salary cuts, the CEO withheld their salaries for more than two months.
Additionally, he has ignored court orders, claiming he is untouchable.
“On April 19, Ken Ngaruiya issued a notice on a 50% pay cut across nearly all cadres of staff and backdated to April 1. Though this was 19 days into a month, he didn’t seem to care about the welfare of the workers weighed down by the pressures of covid-19 and other responsibilities,” reads the employees’ letter.
“Employees who moved to court to defend their rights have gone without pay for more than two months. This has exposed them and their families to untold suffering, financial insecurity and psychological distress,” it reads.
READ ALSO: Citizen TV News Anchor Yvonne Okwara faced discrimination at work for being dark-skinned
Moreover, efforts by employees to seek dialogue on an agreeable pay cut and fate of current contracts have been thwarted by the CEO.
Instead, Mr Ngaruiya has instead resulted to “blackmail, intimidation and other cheap manoeuvres.”
The employees reveal this is the reason why former K24 news anchor Betty Kyallo resigned.
They further claim the suicide of Molo news correspondent was because of the problems in the media company.
According to a ruling by Justice Byram Ongaya, K24 workers were to be paid full April and May salaries. Mr Ngaruiya was also ordered to carry out the redundancies as per the law.
However, according to reports, Mr Ngaruiya has vowed not to honour the court ruling. He “will exact revenge on affected staff by tossing them into the streets without a penny through redundancy.”
The employees want the CEO to pay them their April and May salaries in full and respect the existing contracts.
They also want their boss to carry out the redundancies as per the law and uphold workers’ rights and welfare.
