Journalists working at the Standard Media Group have gone for three months without salary. According to a report that appeared in a local news outlet, the journalists working for KTN, KTN News, and the Standard newspaper are now considering taking legal action to compel the media house to pay them.
This comes as the media house prepares to sack over 150 employees. These employees will be sent home across all its outlets including KTN, the Standard newspaper, and radio.
The report on the delayed salaries says that some workers at the Standard haven’t been paid for work dating back to August 2022.
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“Guys have not been paid salaries for like three months. The last time we were paid was for August which was remitted in September,” the report quoted a source.
“They should pay on 26th of every month. There are those people who can’t come to work naturally because they do not have money.”
The Kenya Union of Journalists confirmed that some of its members who worked at the Standard Media Group had not received their salaries.
“We are aware of what is happening at the Standard and the situation is bad. The last salaries were paid like three months ago so the Standard is in arrears,” KUJ Secretary General Eric Oduor was quoted as saying.
“This is a company that seems confused and does not know what to do. They are not even talking to employees even as much as we are pushing them to pay and they keep making those promises but we are working on something. The company seems to be too broke.”
Kenyan media has been facing financial headwinds. It has largely been blaming social media and bloggers for the dilution of its core business that has diminished with the rise of online citizen journalism and digitization.