Times of Zambia Journalists Strike as Hichilema Sends SOS Unionized workers at the Times of Zambia have gone on strike after going three months without pay. And the opposition United Party for National Development has called for the immediate payment of three months salary arrears for striking Times of Zambia employees. UPND president Hakainde Hichilema says the failure to pay salaries is an indictment on the calibre of boards that the Patriotic Front government has been putting up to run parastatals. The workers at Times of Zambia, who have been grappling with delayed salaries for the last three years, today decided to stage a sit in protest demanding the payment of their overdue salaries. Times of Zambia has been operating on drip following lean funds from government while plans for the privatization of the institution have continued to meet resistance from government. Workers are also calling for an end to arbitrary transfers of employees suspected to have spearheaded the last sit in protest at the institution. Below is the full statement: OFFICIAL STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Strike at Times of Zambia It disheartening to hear that employees at the government owned Times of Zambia newspaper have gone for 3 months without pay. At a time the cost of living is unbearable to many people. As UPND, we are also fully aware that top managers are busy buying expensive personal to holder vehicles while employees are going without pay for such length period of time. It is very clear that the extravagance and selfishness that exists in the PF government leadership has now spread to a few heads of parastatal boards and other quasi-institutions most of whom were handpicked without following laid down corporate governance procedures. We are wondering how families of these employees are now surviving because we know that some of them are being evicted from their houses, their children have been chased from schools, yet they report for work everyday but bosses and management boards have not helped to resolve the problems. As UPND, we appeal to government to immediately pay the outstanding salaries to the Times of Zambia employees and make sure they address the sad state of affairs where salaries are paid late. What is happening at Times of Zambia is a clear case where incompetent management boards composed of PF cadres are appointed to run critical institutions, the ultimate is failure. Hakainde Hichilema UPND President zambiareports/2014/06/03/times-zambia-journalists-strike-hichilema-sends-sos/
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:42:25 +0000
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