City7 in crisis?: Warning signal

Employees of Dubai-based English channel City7 TV have threatened to walk out of the company alleging non-payment of their salaries.

Mohidin Bin Hendi, President of Bin Hendi Enterprise, owners of the station, denied that the channel employees have not been paid their salaries.

He told XPRESS: "Bin Hendi Enterprise as a whole is looking into all its divisions that may not be performing as expected and reassessing them due to the recent financial crisis".

When asked whether City7 TV will be shut down he said: "We are still studying the matter, this may or may not happen but I assure all our employees that they will receive their dues."

Several employees of the channel, based in Dubai Media City, attempted to file a complaint against the station management at TECOM (Technology and Media Free Zone Authority) yesterday.

Four employees alleged they and their colleagues have not been paid for over one-and-a-half months.

"We have given an ultimatum of two days for them to pay us, otherwise we are walking out on Thursday," a City7 reporter said.

"We don't know what is going on, it has been anarchy for the past two days and people have been rushing to make show reels and collecting papers to find new jobs," the reporter said.

An e-mail sent by Ron Kapadia, the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of City7 TV, to network staff blamed the economic crisis.

"We are all aware of the recent downturn in the state of the world economy which in all honesty has impacted all the countries across the world in one way or another," the November 13 e-mail stated.

Kapadia's mail further stated: "All of us (are) aware that the salaries have been delayed this month by 15 days so far for all City7 TV employees and I am in fervent discussion with the head office on this issue. I assume that the matter should be resolved one way or the other, latest by mid next week. I do applaud your patience and silence in this matter understanding how you feel since I happen to be in the same situation as all of you. I am sure all of you being expats have financial liabilities which need attention at the end of every month to be able to ‘stay afloat'. I would like to personally apologise to all of you for the delay."

Additional input from Mohammed N. Al Khan