Closure of Afro Voice Newspaper angers union

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has expressed concern at the news that the Afro Voice Newspaper, formerly known as The New Age, has shut down.

The newspaper which was previously owned by the Gupta family, announced it was closing shop late last week, resulting in at least 350 workers losing their jobs.

According to reports, staffers are going on paid leave – and were promised that they will receive their salaries for the month of July.

However, the CWU says there were no warning signs of the shutdown and the proper processes were not followed.

CWU General Secretary Aubrey Tshabalala says they have demanded a meeting with the management.

“We were shocked on how the matter was delivered to workers. The unfortunate part here is that the company did not follow the necessary procedures – whether the newspaper is going to close down, or be liquidated, or bought by another institution – there are processes that needs to be followed.”

“You can’t come on just in a day and say we are shutting down tomorrow… We’ve written a letter inquiring, to say how many people are affected [and] what are the processes? Why did [they] not follow processes – but also demanded to have a meeting with them. If we are not satisfied with the answers, we are going to look at the legal side of things in terms of how we make sure that the packages that workers take home becomes a cushion to a certain extent,” explains Tshabalala.