News / National
Newspapers company failing to pay Journalists
11 Mar 2011 at 07:31hrs | Views
Journalists employed by Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, are up in arms with their employer for failing to pay them on time.
Reporters, some of whom left jobs elsewhere to join the newspaper group, said they were finding it difficult to make ends meet and had since engaged the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) to intervene.
"Some of us are finding it difficult to pay fees and a number of colleagues have had their children sent home after failing to pay school fees. Others have been evicted for failing to pay rent," said a reporter.
ANZ human resources manager Tsitsi Saidi confirmed the company had not paid staff salaries for last month, but said she hoped they would be paid soon.
"We are a little bit late with our February salaries, but everything will be OK soon," she said.
ZUJ secretary-general Foster Dongozi on Thursday confirmed the development saying the plight of the workers was worrisome.
"It's a very unfortunate development that colleagues and comrades have had to go without a salary. This has caused anguish in their families and demoralised workers, some of whom crossed the divide to join the daily," said Dongozi.
"We are urging the responsible authorities at The Daily News to launch their product as soon as possible so that they can generate revenue from sales and advertising."
Dongozi said the union had hoped the newspaper would bring in competition and increase the bargaining power of journalists.
Zimbabwe Media Commission chairman Godfrey Majonga recently expressed his disappointment in that three publications granted licences to publish daily newspapers, The Daily News, The Daily Gazette and The Daily Mail, had not yet launched print operations.
Photo courtesy of Jon Slattery's Blog
Reporters, some of whom left jobs elsewhere to join the newspaper group, said they were finding it difficult to make ends meet and had since engaged the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) to intervene.
"Some of us are finding it difficult to pay fees and a number of colleagues have had their children sent home after failing to pay school fees. Others have been evicted for failing to pay rent," said a reporter.
ANZ human resources manager Tsitsi Saidi confirmed the company had not paid staff salaries for last month, but said she hoped they would be paid soon.
"We are a little bit late with our February salaries, but everything will be OK soon," she said.
"It's a very unfortunate development that colleagues and comrades have had to go without a salary. This has caused anguish in their families and demoralised workers, some of whom crossed the divide to join the daily," said Dongozi.
"We are urging the responsible authorities at The Daily News to launch their product as soon as possible so that they can generate revenue from sales and advertising."
Dongozi said the union had hoped the newspaper would bring in competition and increase the bargaining power of journalists.
Zimbabwe Media Commission chairman Godfrey Majonga recently expressed his disappointment in that three publications granted licences to publish daily newspapers, The Daily News, The Daily Gazette and The Daily Mail, had not yet launched print operations.
Photo courtesy of Jon Slattery's Blog
Source - Byo24NEWS
