Dakar, 12 January 2018- The BBC Africa workers, all dressed in black, with red armbands on their arms, protested against the management’s delay on their platform of demands.
At their weekly editorial meeting, all the BBC’s French service journalists, black-clad, standing, and red armbands attached to the left arm, denounced by their silence the disregard of their management for their demand for salary increases and their living conditions, sold out at the breakout.
“It’s a warning that we launch as on the road when the traffic light is at the Orange. When we go to the Red, it can last a very long time. As long as our demands remain unanswered and unresolved by the BBC, “warned Bruno SANOGO, secretary general of the BBC Africa trade union section.
The demands of the employees go back more than two years and concern a balancing of wages in relation to the volume of weekly work (48 hours per week), with the cost of living increasingly high in Dakar. “We also ask for a monthly housing allowance for each worker and an annual return air ticket, knowing that 4 employees on 5 have been recruited outside Senegal but must take charge of their annual return to their home country. “says Enoh NDRI, the union’s claims officer.
The workers of this great British public service media intend by this first action “Red armbands and silence” to once again attract the attention of their management who practices wage discrimination, both on the genres than on the races. Depending on whether you are white or black; whether you are men or women, you will be paid graciously or as an unqualified worker! “This is the rule at the BBC and it can not and must not last” denounce the employees.