Influx of applicants scare old UBC staff
As a result, the staff claim they have not been paid for two months and have been threatening a sit-down strike to have their salary arrears cleared before the massive recruitment is done. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Terms & Condition. Currently, the management of UBC has tasked all applicants to constantly tune to UBC television for any update on the shortlist for interviews and they should expect questions around the different programmes being aired.
KAMPALA. The big number of applications pouring in for recently advertised jobs with Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) has damped morale of current staff with the national broadcaster.
Sources inside UBC say ever since the revamp team appointed by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology recommended a total overhaul of the human resource, the staff have developed negative attitude towards work.
The sources also say the overhaul, which includes advertising most of the positions at UBC, has been undermined further by the action of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to freeze the broadcaster’s accounts and also attaching their vehicles.
“The mood among us the staff is not good because the ministry decided to advertise our positions without giving a chance for internal competition. What is happening now is that most of us don’t care to come to work because who knows what the fate will be. But also, the vehicles that transported staff to work early morning and late after work were attached,” said a UBC staff who preferred anonymity.
Early this month, URA after freezing of the UBC accounts, also impounded three of the branded vehicles, which the staff say has paralysed their transportation. The tax collectors are demanding UBC to clear accumulated tax areas of nearly Shs15b inclusive of interest since 2005.
As a result, the staff claim they have not been paid for two months and have been threatening a sit-down strike to have their salary arrears cleared before the massive recruitment is done.
But the sources told Daily Monitor that the biggest fear among the staff is the overwhelming number of applicants that have expressed interest in working with UBC in response to the recent job adverts published in the newspapers early this month.
Applications
The revamp team put up for grabs more than 350 jobs across all the UBC platforms that include two television stations and several radio stations across the country.
The managing director, Mr Winston Agaba, said the call for application has attracted more than 3,500 applicants seeking to work with UBC, but said that should not worry the current staff since they were all asked to compete.
“What I know is that the adverts have attracted more than 3,500 applications, but at the moment we have not yet sat with the human resource manager at the ICT ministry to be able to tell the numbers attracted by each position. There is no need for alarm from the staff because every change in management and operations comes with anxiety,” Mr Agaba said.
He said management was working hard to secure funding to pay the staff their salary arears for the month of April, but not for two months as the workers claim.
Mr Agaba also said much as they are looking for money to clear the URA tax arrears, the tax collectors should not have harassed a national institution when there are many private entities that are defaulting on taxes despite making a lot of profits.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Mr Vincent Bagiire Waisswa, said the transformation of UBC needs a collective sense of ownership by all Ugandans.
Terms & Condition. Currently, the management of UBC has tasked all applicants to constantly tune to UBC television for any update on the shortlist for interviews and they should expect questions around the different programmes being aired.
