ZCTU urges govt to intervene in Times of Zambia financial crisis

SOURCE- $Times_of_Zambia—The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has appealed to government to urgently intervene in the financial woes being faced by the Times of Zambia Newspapers.

ZCTU General Secretary, Misheck Nyambose, said in a statement released to ZANIS that the congress is deeply concerned that workers at the Times of Zambia have endured financial hardships due to a poor financial situation at the medium institution.

Mr Nyambose said government should come up with urgent measures to rescue the company from the current financial difficulties in order to alleviate the suffering of the workers due to non- payment of salaries.

“We are worried because any further deterioration of the financial woes is a serious threat to the existence of the company and jobs at the Newspaper,” he said.

Mr Nyambose has further called upon government to investigate the performance of the board and management at the Times of Zambia for failing to make the company competitive and make use of the little resources available to effectively manage the affairs of the company.

He stated that Times of Zambia is run on similar lines as other public media institutions but wondered how other media houses are managing to survive while the Times of Zambia is failing lamentably to be viable, a sign which he said denotes poor planning by management.

Mr Nyambose said it is unfair for the company to fail to pay workers’ salaries while expecting them to continue producing the newspapers, further stating that the act is a violation of workers’ basic human rights.

He said government cannot continue talking about media reforms on poorly funded media institutions as the situation at Times of Zambia can contribute to media institutions being biased.