KAMPALA – One of the oldest FM stations, Sanyu FM will have entirely new faces as a dispute over salary cuts in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic has ended in old staff relinquishing their contracts.
Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia, the proprietor of the station says that with the old staff reneging over the new salary arrangements forced by the Coronavirus “new blood” will slot in and fill the void.
The old staff had laid down their tools in the standoff which made their employment untenable.
On Wednesday, Sanyu FM promptly hired Patrick Idringi a.k.a Salvado to run its breakfast show. Salvador a popular comedian, was beaming literally with a smile on the poster announcing the man from Embokolo as replacing Fat Boy a controversial radio presenter who had been at Sanyu FM for about 21 years.
Salvador will Thursday morning find an empty station, and he is like the first recruit of the new Sanyu FM.
While many employees across have joined their employers to accept salary cuts to manage budgets as Covid-19 has washed away sizeable revenue from media companies, Sanyu FM staff reportedly refused to take a 25% salary cut and instead, decided to lay down their tools for the last three days, a matter that prompted Ruparelia Managing Director Rajiv to act.
“They achieved only 50 percent of revenue of the budget. We asked 25 percent salary cuts, so (they -ed) decided to go on strike contrary to their contract thus terminating it them selves. Now time for new blood,” Rajiv says.
The rest is now history.
