Accused of having laid off employees of his group, the Administrator of Africome Sa rejects these accusations. Reached by phone, Mamadou Ibra Kane wants to be clear. "What I can say is that a worker who refuses to come to work, it is normal for any company to take sanctions against that worker. And this is the case of three journalists who refused to come face-to-face to the editorial staff and so we put them on technical unemployment," he explains. According to Mr. Kane, contrary to what was argued in the press release of the Union of Information and Communication Professionals (Synpics), "everything is within the framework of the law". "Work discipline is the first condition for a worker. They were working from home. They were asked to come back to work in the editorial office, they refused and this was noted by bailiff," he insists.
In a press release made public at the end of last week, Synpics denounced the unpaid layoff of employees of the Africome Group, publisher of the Sunu Lamb and Stades newspapers. "I do not respond to the vociferations of a small group of activists lacking representativeness," retorts Mr. Kane who stresses, however, that his group, like all press companies, is strongly impacted by Covid 19. "The report of the press employers showed that there is a loss of 70% of revenue for the written press. We are just as affected by Covid 19," says Kane. The president of the Council of Press Broadcasters of Senegal (Cdeps) also indicates that his press group is up to date on social issues. "All Africome workers have a formal contract. In the 17 years that Africome has existed, there have never been any salary arrears and Africome is up to date with its social contributions to both Ipres and the Social Security Fund. And all our workers are subscribers to the Ipm. These are extremely important achievements in the press sector," he says.