Anxiety is mounting at the Standard Group after it emerged that the management was planning to fire a big number of staff anytime from Friday in a bold cost-cutting measure.
Highly placed sources say the company’s board of directors will meet Friday to sanction the offloading of between 200-300 staff following a performance review by consulting firm Deloitte.
All the departments will be affected, the sources add.
The decision is a culmination of months of intensive consultations involving stakeholders and major shareholders.
JITTERY STAFF
The situation has caused disquiet among staff who are jittery on whether they will survive the axe or not.
Sources further indicate that senior managers could also be on the chopping board.
In the meantime, the company has frozen per diem and the two company’s Saccos have stopped issuing loans “until the list is out”.
Beside whining to anybody who cares to listen, journalists at the company have joined the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) in large numbers in the last three months.
KUJ has a Collective Bargain Agreement with local media companies that makes it harder – or more expensive – to fire its members.
Indeed, a union official told Nairobi News that they were “aware of the goings-on” at the company and are “keeping an eye” with a view to protect the members.
Keep it Nairobi News for this developing story.
