NUJ to Picket ThisDay, Newswatch Times

Fri, Mar 13, 2015

By publisher

2 MIN READ

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The Nigerian Union of Journalists will soon picket the offices of ThisDay and Newswatch Times for non-payment of salaries to staff

| By Anayo Ezugwu | Mar. 23, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |

THE Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, is set to picket two national newspapers, ThisDay and Newswatch Times, over unpaid salaries to their staff. While ThisDay is owing eight months salary, Newswatch Times is in arrears of six months. National Mirror, which is also owned by Jimoh Ibrahim, also the publisher of Newswatch Times, has a backlog of four months’ salary.

In separate letters to the publishers of the newspapers, the national secretariat of the NUJ called on them to urgently offset the backlog of salaries of journalists in their employment. The letter, signed by Shuaibu Usman Leman, NUJ national secretary, said it was instructive to stress that the successes being recorded by the newspapers are attributable mainly to the hard work of members who toil daily to ensure that the newspapers hit he newsstand unfailingly. Leman said it was therefore counterproductive to even delay the workers’ salaries.

Realnews learnt that the NUJ may picket the newspapers’ establishment soon if the salaries remained unpaid. It was gathered that the owner of ThisDay had reached an agreement with some of its senior staff to pay the salary before the publisher lost his brother.

Newswatch Times lost some experienced hands in January as a result of the salary arrears. It also gathered that some graphic artists in the newspaper were sacked for demanding the payment of their outstanding salaries and refusing to work. This led to the reduction of the pagination of the newspaper from 98 to 56.

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