ANN7 targeting union members‚ CWU charges
The Communication Workers Union has accused the Gupta-owned ANN7 news channel of targeting staff members who belong to the union. According to the union’s national organiser‚ Tshepo Matlou‚ 19 more journalists and camera people were served with disciplinary hearing notices on Thursday for booing ANCYL president Collen Maine in April. The initial number of staff members who appeared before the disciplinary committee last week was 31. "A total of 50 people all belonging to the CWU were charged. They were told that new evidence against them has surfaced but surprisingly the only people charged are CWU members‚" he said adding that "We as a union are disturbed by this and we will be going the legal route if things are not resolved."In April Maine went to ANN7 headquarters in Midrand to address staff over the decision by four of the country's biggest banks to close the accounts of Oakbay‚ a Gupta-owned company.Staff members chased him chanting "Maine must fall".The group is also charged with intimidating a fellow employee after they reportedly called out a senior employee for signing a letter purporting to be on their behalf which was sent to the four banks - ABSA‚ Standard Bank‚ Nedbank and FNB. The letter demanded that‚ in order to save the jobs of staff‚ they not close the accounts of Oakbay‚ a Gupta family-owned company that owns ANN7.According to official notice documents Times Media Digital has seen‚ the group is charged with “conduct unbecoming an employee of the company' and 'desertion of posts/or unauthorised leaving of the workplace”. An employee at the company who did not wish to be named for fear of victimisation said the company was conducting a “mass cleansing of old staff members”."They are just trying to get rid of all the old people because they make a lot of demands and they are uncontrollable. These DC charges are just an easy way to chuck everyone out‚" the employee said.Oakbay Investments CEO Nazeem Howa declined to comment‚ referring all questions to the ANN7 communications team which was not immediately available. ..
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