By Spy Uganda
All employees of His Highness Prince Aga Khan’s Nation Media Group in Kenya are already tasting the brunt of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic after the Company announced a reduction in their salaries.
This website has established that the conglomerate has since passed a decision to reduce salaries for all employees, as one of the measures of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 on the company’s coffers.
According to a statement released by Nation Media Group (NMG) management on April, 29th, 2020, the Company has since decided to reduce all workers’ monthly emoluments by a half, until the country’s economy overcomes the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The statement issued by Stephen Gitama, the Group Chief Executive Officer, reads in part thus;
I trust you are keeping well and staying safe by adhering to the guidelines from the Ministry of Health on prevention of COVID-19 transmission.
As you are ware, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in global uncertainty and unprecedented challenges impacting most business adversely. The global economy has been disrupted and many companies have either shut down or substantially scaled down operations due to the drastic decline in revenues. The media industry has not been spared and all media houses, including NMG, are doing everything possible to ensure business continuity during this very unpredictable times.
Management has so far undertaken several cost-saving interventions to keep the business running and continue to deliver services to our customers. As part of these measures. As part of these measures, the Board of Directors have taken a reduction on their Directors’ fees.
However, in order to ensure sustenance of livelihoods of staff and their departments during this challenging period we have to do more.
Consequently, we have taken a painful but necessary decision to temporarily reduce gross pay for all staff earning gross monthly pay of Kshs50,000 and over, effective from 1st May, 2020.
The pay reduction depends on your gross pay and ranges from 5% to 36%. The Human Resources department and your line manager will get in touch with you separately on your individual change…..”
However, many employees of Daily Monitor, NTV and other companies owned under Nation Media Group in Uganda are greatly worried, because they are likely to also see a reduction in their salaries too, following the decision by the Mother Company in Kenya.
