Kampala mogul Dr Sudhir Ruparelia’s son Rajiv Ruparelia, who is the Managing Director of Sanyu FM radio station, has spoken out on why management decided to fire all the staff, following a sit down strike.

The saga started on Monday when the employees of Sanyu FM decided to stage a sit-down strike, protesting a decision by Management of the radio to reduce their salaries, due to the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic on the radio’s finances.

However, all the staff unanimously rejected the decision, arguing that their salaries couldn’t be reduced because of the poverty created by the COVID-19 lockdown and a way of expressing their dissatisfaction, they decided to lay down their tool.

In a lengthy chat with The Capital Times, Tycoon Rajiv said thus;
“It is regrettable but it was inevitable to fire them all. This suggestion from Management was well thought out, to enable the company go through this period, together with our staff without laying off anybody. There’s no adverts now, no company wants to spend money on ads, and that’s where they mainly generate their salaries.”

“We made a business decision to cost-cut so as to make the business sustainable and protect jobs. We offered to talk and negotiate a solution but they instead chose to lay down their tools. They terminated themselves,” he added.

“When you lay down the tools, you have broken contract and terminated yourself. The company has contracts on advertising and is actually making losses. If you have a contract and you stop doing that which you promised to do in the contract and you are absconding from work, in essence, you have terminated your own contract of employment,” he said.

We’ve also landed on a letter from the radio station’s management asking the staff to meet over the salaries impasse. Staff, however, refused to meet, choosing to lay down their tools.

As a way of sorting the matter for good, Management announced that all employees who had participated in the strike had been fired and prohibited from accessing the radio station’s premises henceforth.

Meanwhile, we have learnt that some of the employees, after realizing that they had been misled by the ringleaders of the strike, have since coiled their apologies and apologized to Management, asking to be reinstated on their jobs.

Rajiv also revealed that “But good enough, some of the staff have already understood the mistake, they’ve come back apologizing and I have already told them it’s okay. As a matter of fact, tomorrow you will hear the girls who was working with Fat Boy in the morning show working with Salvado. She apologized after realizing that Fat Boy was being too selfish. She is back….”

He added that “And in any case, this was an idea whose final decision was to be reached at in the scheduled today’s meeting with all the staff. They know about it.”

Twitter Reaction After The Saga

This breaks my heart. All the years I joyfully recall working at Sanyu FM – this can’t be happening… The management team was decent when I was there. I hope they can sit down with the people who have given them some of the best years of their lives, I pray this gets resolved! https://t.co/9UwD2NXXVH

— Seanice Kacungira (@hiseanice) June 10, 2020

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