Why we sacked 145 staff – TVC

The current economic meltdown in Nigeria might have caught up with one of the media giants in the country, Television Continental (TVC), whose management has just sacked about 145 members of its workforce.
Though the Lagos-based broadcast station did not give official reasons for sacking the affected staff, it was gathered that the decision to reduce the workforce was borne out of the huge overhead cost currently being paid to keep an over bloated staff.
While the Human Resources Manager of the company, Stella Obialor, refused to speak on the matter, a top official of the organisation, who craved anonymity, told our correspondent that the restructuring was long overdue.
Declining comment, Obialor said she was not in a position to speak for the company, but referred our correspondent to the Public Relations Manager, whose telephone was off as at press time, for official comments.
The editorial official that preferred anonymity lamented that the company was paying as huge as N200 million every month as wages and salary despite the economic downturn and had not owed salaries despite the cash crunch.
Prominent faces on the television set were said to be among those that were laid off, as the station could no longer cope with a burgeoning workforce.
“It is understandable. It is an issue that had been pending and somehow, it had to happen. They were laid off as a sacrifice, so that the company will not fold up. We were paying as much as N200 million every month just for salary alone. That figure is huge. And you know that we are not owing anybody salary.
“This is the tenth year I have been working with the company, they have not owed me for one day. It is a tough choice but it is an option that would save the company from collapse,” the official said.
When queried on the identity of the affected staff, the source said: “They would soon be known when they are no longer visible on the scene.
“Some of them are faces that you see regularly on the screen, but you won’t be seeing them again because the restructuring has affected them.”
The media giant had also Friday told the staff of the intention to stop broadcasting from one of its major channels, TVC International, while throwing the 145 members of its workforce into the labour market, linking it to restructuring process going on in the company.