The Standard Media Group has announced that it is planning to fire up to 300 employees. This comes as financial troubles at the media house pile on. The company has issued a one-month notice that comes into effect starting on July 31.

The redundancy notice takes effect upon the expiry of one month’s notice issued on July 31 and is expected to affect more than 300 employees across various departments. All the affected employees will be duly informed in writing,” the notice states in part.

The company has stated that it has resulted to firing its workers due to a difficult business environment and its long-drawn effect on revenue generation.

“This situation has been witnessed on the back of shifting trends in media consumption, occasioned by technological changes in the digital media landscape and emerging consumer preferences which have necessitated a rethink of our business model,” the Standard Media said in the notice to all its employees.

The Standard Media claimed that the affected employees will receive their payment for days worked until the date of exit and a severance pay of 15 days (or as indicated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement for employees who are members of a union) for every completed year of service.

It was not, however, immediately clear if those who will be fired will actually be paid all their current salaries and all salary arrears in full, given that a huge number of workers at the media house have gone for as many as seven months without being paid.

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On July 17, the Standard employees staged a mass walkout from their workstations in protest against months of unpaid salaries. The strike kicked off at around 12.30pm at the media company’s headquarters along Mombasa Road.

This resulted in an interruption of the 1pm news on KTN where only one news item was broadcast. Dozens of employees held a meeting at the outside the offices where they resolved to have everyone at the company down their tools.

The Standard Media Group employees started by moving to the KTN Home docket, the Human Resource, Convergence Newsroom, and eventually Radio. This strike came barely two weeks after workers at the media house’s radio department staged a walkout in a similar pay protest.