South Sudan Radio and TV staff to go on strike on Wednesday

May 18, 2010 (JUBA) – Staff of the government-owned Southern Sudan Radio and TV have resolved to go on strike beginning on Wednesday this week.

The staff have been denied payment of their 12-month housing allowances arrears for the year 2009. Southern Sudan government last year, after assessing the collective difficulties faced by the government staff in getting accomodations, passed a resolution providing housing allowance with effect from January 2009.

Most of the government institutions were paid their allowances with the exception of few among which included the ministry of Information and Broadcasting which failed to implement the resolution.

Most of Radio and TV staff work from morning at 8:00AM to 5:00PM, and sometimes up to 9:30PM and 12:00Midnight of evening broadcasting, respectively.

Shortly before the conduct of elections in April, the staff threatened to go on strike, but the plan was stopped through the intervention of the office of the President which promised that the allowances would be paid.

The committee that was formed to follow up the promise briefed the staff on Tuesday, informing them of the failure to implement the directive of the office of the President through the ministry of information and that of ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. They also charge that the ministry of Public Service and Human Resources Development, which should have defended their claim to the allowances, has been silent about the issue.

Earlier, it was learnt that the President directed both the ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the ministry of Finance to clear all the 12 months arrears for the staff. The directive was however not implemented, leaving the staff confused as to which other higher authority they would take their case to.

On Tuesday, according to the committee, it was decided in a meeting that the strike would be effected as an expression of their grievances. “They promised us that they would pay the money before the elections were conducted. Now that the elections are over, they have resorted to their usual neglect,” said one of the staff who asked to remain ananymous.

Southern Sudan Radio and TV are the only official broadcasting media in the region. According to the sources from the radio station, it was also communicated in that meeting that the branch state radio stations in Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal state and Malakal, in Upper Nile state, will also go on strike on the same day in show of sympathy to the situation faced by their colleagues in the Southern Sudan’s capital, Juba.