Muvi TV In Trouble - Employees Walk Out

The chaos at privately owned Muvi Television is becoming increasingly apparent, with an anonymous source leaking stories to the press.

Steve Nyirenda’s Muvi TV has reportedly suffered a mass exodus of employees as a result of poor working conditions and also political bias by the proprietor.

Nyirenda is said to be fast losing the plot with half the newsroom exiting the station citing poor pay and dehumanizing labour conditions. The below letter has been anonymously sent in;

Dear Editor

For a long time now, outsiders have been given a wrong impression of Muvi television. Those outside has an impression that all is well when infact not.

To start with, the owner of the company Mr Steve Nyirenda is a failed manager himself and depends on the advise given to him by his equally failed managers who are not even qualified to hold the positions they are holding.

Mr Nyirenda does not respect any labour law in this country. He makes decisions based on his own conviction without considering whether it will hurt the workers or not. For him whatever he dreams about, no matter how wrong, should be implemented at the company.

For Example, at one point Nyirenda just woke up and decided that all employees should be removing shoes, leave them at the entrance and walk bare footed in offices for the rest of the day. This went on for almost one year in 2014 before he could reverse the decision.(Whatever that meant no one knows todate)

This is Nyirenda who would just wake up and decide to abrogate the labour laws with impunity. For example in the meeting he addressed towards the end of 2017, Nyirenda openly challenged those who were hurt to report him to the Ministry of labour if they so wished while boasting that “THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR DOES NOT FEED ME. I FEED THEM BECAUSE I PAY TAX” END OF QUOTE.

Just in November 2017, Nyirenda just woke up and called for departmental meetings where he told the workers to start operating at 25 percent, meaning One week in a month (SEVEN DAYS TO BE SPECIFIC) with the salary strictly being based on SEVEN DAYS. Now , there are workers at MUVI Television who get as low as K1,500 as salaries and the decision by Nyirenda now meant these people, especially drivers have had to get K 375 as a salary based on the 25 percent. It does not bother Nyirenda whether these people have school going children or stay in rented houses so long him is comfortable.

This is not the first time that Nyirenda is doing this…Early in 2015, Nyirenda held a general meeting at which he told the workers that he had K19 million debt and that workers should help him clear. He then decided to reduce our salaries by 50 percent and we were subjected to work two weeks in a month for three months. He promised to increase salaries for the workers afterwards but to date nothing has happened.

Getting back to the 25 percent work schedule. It should be made known that Nyirenda had been evading tax…In October 2017, ZRA Inspection officers in the company of Armed police officers stormed MUVI Television for an impromptu check on the files and it was discovered that the company owed ZRA about K2.5 Million. ZRA gave MUVI TV Two weeks in which to clear the bill or face the law. At that time, Nyirenda was not around as he was busy enjoying his life with one of his many concubines at his Fresh view homes lodge in Siavonga.

Upon seeing the uncompromising ZRA officers storm the TV station, all of Nyirenda’s unqualified managers who are totally blank about management skills, fled the offices and camped on a lawn outside the office building where they alarmingly took turns in making one phone call after another to Nyirenda, telling him that ZRA officers had stormed the offices.

This prompted Nyirenda to cut short his enjoyment and rushed back to Lusaka to make the decision of paying ZRA using the 75 percent of workers’ salaries. And in as much as we are aware that the man might have managed to settle something at ZRA by now, Nyirenda has taken advantage of the docile workers at the institution and has now issued a memo stating that we should get back to 100 percent operations without explaining anything on whether the salaries will also get back to 100 percent or not. Bust according to our impeccable sources in the accounts department, Nyirenda is planning to start paying us 45 percent salaries.

As most of the people know, 95 percent workers at MUVI are Nirenda’s relatives , most of them Grade seven and nine drop-outs who are equally totally blank about the labour laws and can not even do anything when such decisions are made.

NOTE:NYIRENDA IS BLAMING HIS CURRENT PREDICAMENT, INCLUDING HIS RECENT MARITAL PROBLEMS ON THE RULING PATRIOTIC FRONT. HOW? NO ONE KNOWS.