Just a few days after Makerere University workers laid down their tools, a development that has led to the closure of the biggest university in the country, there are reports that workers at Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), the state-owned TV and Radio station, will go on strike until they are paid their salary arrears.
According to a statement circulating on social media, reportedly authored by the workers, they will lay down their tools beginning Friday, November 4, if payment of their salaries is not cleared by tomorrow.
The UBC is currently undergoing restructuring and in the statement the workers expressed fear that many are likely to be fired without receiving their pay, which they put at six months.
But contrary to that, the station’s management says the workers haven’t been paid for only one and a half months; initially, an official at UBC said, the workers were demanding for two months but were recently paid a quarter of their salary arrears.
Also, the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is a clique of workers who are afraid of the ongoing restructuring process and have set out to damage the image of the institution.
In a related development, there are reports that some of the station’s top officials including the Marketing Manager Denis Mbidde have resigned, leaving the UBC management in panic.
The threat by the UBC workers comes at a time President Yoweri Museveni ordered the closure of Makerere University following a sit down strike by students and their lecturers, with the latter demanding payment of their arrears.
In his directive, the President said the decision was taken ‘to guarantee the safety of persons and property’.
