Journalists from Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), the largest privately owned media company in Zimbabwe, have declared incapacitation due to the erosion of their salaries by inflation, according to a statement from the AMH Zimbabwe Union of Journalists branch.
The employees said they are struggling to afford basic expenses, including rent, transportation and school fees. The workers have requested that salaries be pegged in US dollars or equivalent indexed to the official bank rate. They said:
…our salaries have been heavily eroded by the ever-rising inflation, yet we are expected to continue producing content for the three publications and digital platforms. That the salaries have been heavily eroded, we are finding it extremely difficult to afford to put decent meals on our tables, clothe ourselves and our families, pay for our rentals, and worse even come to work daily.
We are requesting that salaries be pegged in United States Dollars or equivalent on our contracts indexed to the official bank rate.
The workers also expressed concern about short staffing, which has led to long working hours and fatigue. They proposed that management increase staff in the newsroom, as one journalist is currently writing across all three publications, which is against their contracts.
AMH becomes the second media house to declare incapacitation, following Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (ZimPapers) in Bulawayo. AMH publishes the NewsDay, The Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent newspapers.
AMH Editor-in-Chief Kolwani Nyathi told the Mirror that he is not allowed to comment on policy issues saying the right person to comment is the Human Resources Manager, Livison Nyathi, who referred questions to the group’s CEO, Trevor Ncube.
AMH publishes NewsDay, The Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent.
Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Kindness Paradza urged media houses to pay their employees reasonable salaries and review journalists’ salaries to stop them from taking bribes. He said:
As Government, we urge media houses to pay their workers reasonable wages in tandem with the economic situation. We also encourage them to review journalists’ salaries so that they desist from getting bribes.
At a recent workshop, Vincent Kahiya, a veteran journalist and former CEO of Alpha Media, warned that several media houses could collapse by September due to a 75% drop in advertising.