The Workers Union of the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to management to address grave issues allegedly taking place at the state broadcaster.
In a statement Issued Thursday, January 16, 2025, the Union said LBS Director General Eugene L. Fahngon has carried out autocratic leadership at the state-owned media house, including running a ‘one-man-show’, intimidating, harassing, and verbally assaulting workers on a daily basis.
The workers said they have been silent on the matters at LBS but it was time to informing the general public and the Liberian leader, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., about Mr. Fahngon’s bad labor practices, inconsistent leadership style, overly controlling behavior that are undermining creativity and productivity among employees at the Liberia Broadcasting System.
The workers said within the period of less than a year as Director General of LBS, they catalogued several missteps, poor administrative actions and draconian decisions taken by Mr. Fahngon.
Amongst several issues raised were: unilateral suspension of all benefits for employees and other staff of LBS, as spelled out in the System’s Human Resource Manual for workers; autocratic and authoritarian behavior, coupled with lack of understanding and empathy for staff of LBS, which have led to the creation of a hostile work atmosphere at the national broadcaster; His arbitrary and illegal dismissal of Mr. Peter Clinton, an employee of the Operations Department; Incrimination of employees without evidence, largely based on false allegations, which sometimes leads to heavy-handed administrative actions to the detriment of workers; Mr. Fahngon’s constant interference into LBS Workers Union’s matters, especially regarding the operations of the worker’s canteen.
Others are, Selective application of the LBS HR Manual to the detriment of LBS workers; constantly issuing threats and targeting for dismissal, employees and contractors assigned with his colleagues in Senior Management (Deputy Director General) positions, largely on suspicion of their alleged disagreement with Mr. Fahngon over policy matters; abolition of year-end bonus to workers (widely referred to by staffers and past management teams as “13th Month”), based on personal preference or choice rather than any objective reasoning or logic; failure to provide insurance for workers after making empty promises to do so in less than four months’ time in collaboration with the LBS Workers Union’s leadership, amongst others.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the press, fellow Liberians, with these excesses being committed by Mr. Fahngon, and in spite of countless pleads from the leadership of the LBS Workers Union for him to turn away from his poor leadership practices to a more adaptive and innovative leadership style that will enable him to meet new challenges and changes in the work environment at LBS, a one that will also encourage creativity and to drive growth and development at the state-owned radio and television outfit, the LBS Director General remains adamant, and to this, we are highly disappointed, to say the least.”
Under Mr. Fahngon, the workers said for the first time in many years, even LBS traditional Christmas Party for children was cancelled solely by Mr. Fahngon outside of a collective consensus with the totality of the LBS management team.
“Relative to Mr. Fahngon’s assertions that the past administration enslaved workers of the System, we want to say to the Liberian people and to the President of Liberia that under Mr. Fahngon as Director General, LBS workers are not just being enslaved by Mr. Fahngon, but he has caused and continues to perpetrate against workers of LBS, psychological torture, unending threats of dismissal, harassment and intimidation to the extent that some of our colleagues were quite recently hard-hit with work-related stress-induced illnesses on the job and they are yet to recover,” the statement said.
The workers said Fahngon unilateral suspension of all benefits to workers, sick colleagues are left to the mercy of God, with the administration paying no attention to their welfare and caring less about the well-being of these sick colleagues of ours–even while Mr. Fahngon’s main concern is raising his weekly allowance from US$750 to US$1,500.
The statement: “The Fahngon-remote-controlled administration, which holds no top management meetings and regular management and workers meeting prior to major administrative decisions and actions being taken by Mr. Fahngon, has absolutely no regard for good labor practices and lacks human feelings, as the administration has absolutely zero respect for the rights of workers.”
Therefore, the LBS Workers Union are demanding Mr. Fahngon to address these critical issues within 72 Hours of the statement, and failure on his part to adhere to same, the entire workforce at LBS, in its majority number, will declare a vote of no confidence in Director General Eugene L. Fahngon:
The workers wants compulsory restoration of all benefits of the workers as enshrined within the HR Manual of LBS; that Fahngon immediately rescind from intimidating workers of LBS to ensure labor harmony; that Fahngon commits himself to ceasing or completely stopping the targeting and threatening with dismissal, employees and contractors working with his colleagues in top management, who differ with him on policy issues; that Mr. Fahngon stays clear of all matters that have to do with LBS workers managing the canteen at the Liberia Broadcasting System because long before he became Director General, the canteen has always been the workers’ center;
They also demand that Fahngon, with immediate effect, reinstates Mr. Peter Clinton, whom he dismissed arbitrarily and illegally; and that he makes a commitment that he will stop the intimidation and molestation of workers and that he will, going forward, allow all workers to freely speak and do their jobs freely and peacefully.
