Business / Companies
Broke AMH gives workers $50 and $100 vouchers
20 Dec 2015 at 11:35hrs | Views
ALPHA Media Holdings (AMH) has reportedly told its restive workers that it cannot afford to pay them their October, November and December salaries.
The media house is now wavering a bankruptcy tag.
To appease its workers, the media house is giving each worker $50 and $100 voucher.
"On Friday, out of the blue they gave us $50 and $100 vouchers each saying it's for the festive season," said one worker.
"It's an insult to us as management is not taking out our October, November pay. We hear that the company is not making any money but we have not seen a single edition without adverts".
Bulawayo24.com has it on good authority that workers in Harare got their allocation on Friday and those in Bulawayo might receive their rations this week.
Just last week, it was dragged to court by retrenched workers.
The Mail & Guardian is Newsday's sister newspaper in South Africa and there are two other papers in the group — The Independent, which publishes on Fridays in Zimbabwe, and Sunday paper The Standard, also in Zimbabwe.
The company is owned by Zimbabwe's Trevor Ncube.
"The company is crumbling. We have been told, not officially that we should forget any form of payment this year' said an insider.
"All along our salaries have being staggered, that is getting half salaries in batches. There is no official communication by people in management have told other bosses to forget about salaries this year".
Appearing before the Retrenchment Board in Harare on Thursday, AMH managing director Vincent Kahiya said since January 2014, the company had been struggling and unable to generate meaningful revenue from sales and advertising.
He said the company was in a "perpetual" loss-making position and it had been unable to pay employees full monthly salaries on time since January 2014.
The group used to cover 75% of the workers' medical aid but reduced that to 50% while allowances such as transport, housing and education are now considered a luxury and have been scrapped.
Salaries for managers were chopped which include paying fees for their children and DStv subscriptions.
The media house is now wavering a bankruptcy tag.
To appease its workers, the media house is giving each worker $50 and $100 voucher.
"On Friday, out of the blue they gave us $50 and $100 vouchers each saying it's for the festive season," said one worker.
"It's an insult to us as management is not taking out our October, November pay. We hear that the company is not making any money but we have not seen a single edition without adverts".
Bulawayo24.com has it on good authority that workers in Harare got their allocation on Friday and those in Bulawayo might receive their rations this week.
Just last week, it was dragged to court by retrenched workers.
The company is owned by Zimbabwe's Trevor Ncube.
"The company is crumbling. We have been told, not officially that we should forget any form of payment this year' said an insider.
"All along our salaries have being staggered, that is getting half salaries in batches. There is no official communication by people in management have told other bosses to forget about salaries this year".
Appearing before the Retrenchment Board in Harare on Thursday, AMH managing director Vincent Kahiya said since January 2014, the company had been struggling and unable to generate meaningful revenue from sales and advertising.
He said the company was in a "perpetual" loss-making position and it had been unable to pay employees full monthly salaries on time since January 2014.
The group used to cover 75% of the workers' medical aid but reduced that to 50% while allowances such as transport, housing and education are now considered a luxury and have been scrapped.
Salaries for managers were chopped which include paying fees for their children and DStv subscriptions.
Source - Byo24News
