The chief executive officer of Radio Jongeli 95.5 FM on Monday verbally fired 5 volunteers who have been working at the station in Bor town, a move which has been resisted by the volunteers who are now threatening court action.

The six volunteers whose services were are the news editor, Deng Gai Deng, finance officer, Aluel Kut Angeth, and reporters, Lueth James, Chol Makol, and Mach Gabriel.

The Radio Jonglei CEO, Tigwog Agwet, told Radio Tamazuj Wednesday that he terminated the services of five out of eight volunteers at the station.

“We were having 8 volunteer staff and 5 volunteers have been terminated. The other 3 volunteers are retained,” he explained. “The reason for verbally terminating the voluntary work of this staff is because they are students at Dr. Garang Memorial University.”

He said he could not give the volunteers termination letters because they had no job contracts but had asked to work at the station as part-time voluntary workers.

“I cannot give them termination letters when they have not signed a contract with Radio Jonglei. They were just working for the radio as volunteers without a contract and this does not need them to be given termination letters,” he reasoned. “If they have a complaint, let them go to the ministry of labor or go to court to produce evidence that they signed a contract with Radio Jonglei.”

Meanwhile, Aluel Kut Angeth, the axed finance officer, said they had written to the station’s management seeking redress and will take the matter to court if there is no positive response.

“If there is no good response towards our letter then the last option is to take the matter for legal redress in court because some of us have been working for 3 years and others worked for 2 years on a full-time basis and now we are being terminated verbally,” she said.

According to Aluel, some of the axed volunteers wrote a project proposal for Radio Jonglei and were almost signing a contract with UNDP.

“Using our names to get funding from UNDP is not acceptable while we are the project owners of that contract and our names are with UNDP,” she charged.

Agol Samuel, one of the reporters who was fired, said they had been replaced with new people who were brought from Juba by Agwet and that a security guard threatened and told them not to step on the premises of the station.

“He (guard) warned us that whoever comes back will be shot and he showed us a gun and a pistol,” he said. “So, we are just waiting for a response to our letter and if there is no response, we will take legal procedures against the station’s chief executive officer.”

The director of Radio Jonglei, John Achiek, when contacted, said he was not aware of the firing of the volunteers and that the decision was taken without him or the board being consulted.

“I was surprised with a lot of calls and chaos by the staff who were terminated yesterday (Monday) while here in Juba. What I can say is that this termination is not procedurals because I and the board were not consulted, he said. “And another issue is that we are all volunteers, including myself. Some of us have been working for 3 years with a promise to sign a contract. This termination is not acceptable.”

He said the terminated volunteers have a legal right to seek solutions in the ministry of labor or go to court.