Business mogul Dr Sudhir Ruparelia has extended an olive branch to former Sanyu FM staff who laid down their tools earlier this week, hence rendering their employment contracts null and void.
News spread on Wednesday that Sudhir had fired the entire Sanyu FM staff who protested a 25 per cent cut on their May salaries that management owed to loss of business during the Covid-19 lockdown. Sudhir set the record straight that he had not fired anyone, but the staff had terminated their own contracts when they chose to strike.
It has been reported that some staff said they had been misled by former Breakfast Show presenter James “Fatboy” Onen into striking and they wanted their jobs back.
Onen appeared on KFM this morning and during an interview claimed that they had been showing up for work but were fired. However, his name was first on the letter Sanyu FM staff wrote indicating their had laid down their tools.
Sources say some of the staffreached out to new Breakfast Show host Patrick Salvado Idringi to “put in a word for them” with Ruparelia Group Managing Director Rajiv Ruparelia to allow them back at work.
We have learnt that a meeting has happened between department heads and Sanyu FM management and it has been resolved that those who want their jobs back have to re-apply for them.
The staff had earlier shunned a meeting the management had called on Thursday to explain that the pay cut was because the station had lost over 50 per cent of its monthly revenue during the lock down and that the move to cut salaries was to save everyone’s job instead of downsizing which would leave some people hopeless.
Several other media houses including the country’s two powerhouses Vision Group (New Vision, Urban TV, Bukedde TV, Bukedde FM, TV West, Kampala Sun) and Nation Media Group (Daily Monitor, NTV, Spark TV, Dembe FM, KFM, East African) had already cut staff salaries beginning with April but the Sanyu FM staff had rejected a May salary cut.
Sudhir has confirmed that those who re-apply for their jobs would be considered since the salary cut was meant to save jobs in the first place.
Already, Ruth Odong, one of the staff who signed the strike letter is back on the job and was heard reading the 6pm news this evening.
