Sudhir asks sacked employees to reapply for jobs

Property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia on Thursday asked all the sacked staff at Sanyu FM to reapply for their jobs.

On Wednesday, Mr Ruparelia sacked all his staff at Sanyu FM after he said that they rejected the 25 per cent salary reduction the company subjected them to.

However, Daily Monitor has leant that the company’s top managers met the heads of departments and agreed to pardon the sacked staff whom they said “apologised” to management.

A source who attended the meeting but preferred anonymity to speak freely said that the staff begged management to return to work because they were misled by one of their colleagues.

The source said that the top managers during the meeting agreed that all those who had absconded but wanted to return must re-apply for their jobs.

However, while appearing on KFM’s breakfast show, D’Mighty Breakfast on Friday morning, Mr James Onen, commonly known as Fat Boy, disagreed with claims by management that they absconded from work as to the reason they were sacked.

Mr Onen, accused management of operating illegally, adding that the pay cut was seen coming but the manner in which they (management) did it was shady.

Onen explained that they had seen the pay cut coming given the fact that media is one of the industries that have been greatly affected by the pandemic. He said they were only hoping it does not happen but it did, which they understood.

“I want to set the record straight, it is not true whatsoever that the staff rejected the pay cut, this narrative is false. We had been anticipating that there could be a pay cut and we were bracing ourselves for it. It finally happened but we were not notified in writing or in any way, we only realised when we looked at our pay slips and saw that the money had been cut by 25 per cent, we just moved on with work and only hoped things would improve,” Onen said.

We were still showing up to work and were still working, so it’s not true that we refused to work because of salary cut.

The management of Sanyu FM has also reportedly received a list of some people who have been recommended to take over the jobs of all those who have left.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Rajiv Ruperelia, the Managing Director of Ruparelia Group confirmed the development. He reiterated that all those who wish to return should reapply.

“Good enough, some of the staff have already admitted their mistake and have apologized,” he said.

Media was on Wednesday awash with the news on the sacking of Sanyu FM employees when they reportedly “hijacked” the company’s twitter account and asked all lawyers who were ready to take on their boss to come on board.

“We are considering legal actions against Sanyu FM for wrongful and unfair dismissal. Any lawyer who is ready to take on Ruparelia, please get in touch with us,” read one of the tweets.

The boycott
About the boycott, Mr Onen explained that it was the initiative by their line managers who drafted a letter of displeasure at the deductions and made each of the staff to sign against it. He added that because it was the managers doing this, the staff complied and signed with a mind that perhaps they (line managers) have leeway with the owners of the company.

“I think I’m being scapegoated in this case. My immediate supervisor called me one evening and told me not to work the next day, he said it was a step taken until the matter is resolved and that is how we did not work, only to be shocked by an accusation that I was absconding from duty. How?” he said.