Reports reaching Joy News indicate that more than 30 workers of private television station, TV3, have been dismissed Tuesday.

The mass dismissals of mainly engineering staff were in response to muted protests following stalled negotiations on end of service benefits (ESB) for staff, a source said.

According to some of the affected staff who spoke on condition of anonymity, they had held long drawn-out negotiations with management of Media Generale, operators of the television station on ESB.

The last meeting they held with management was on February 7, 2017.

At that meeting, they claimed, a proposal was tabled by the management relating to the ESB to which workers will be entitled to some package when they leave the company.

The workers say they found the proposal unacceptable and therefore made their concerns known.

“They (management) were supposed to get back to us on 11^th February, but we didn’t hear from them,” an aggrieved dismissed worker said.

In the wake of the eerie silence from management, the workers decided to wear red attire to signal their frustration.

Management, however, found the conduct offensive and issued queries to more than 30 workers some of whom said they simply wore a polo shirt produced and distributed to staff by the company itself.

The company said the conduct of the workers constituted an obstruction to the congenial atmosphere necessary for smooth work.

The workers in their response to the queries refuted this, insisting that they wore red on the February 22, just as they wore other colours on other days.

They insisted if it was offensive to wear red to work, the company would not have produced red Polo shirts and distribute to workers.

The company may have found their explanation unsatisfactory and therefore issued dismissal letters terminating the appointment of all the affected staff with immediate effect.

They were immediately ordered to leave the premises.

General Secretary of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU), Richard Ampabeng expressed shock over the development describing it as unfortunate.

"We didn't see the dismissal coming," he said, adding the termination of appointment of the workers does not address the hostile relationship between management and the workers.

"This is what we thought we had gotten solution to only to be told today [Tuesday] that the workers had been summarily dismissed," he said.

He, however, noted the PSWU would be meeting management of TV3 network coming Thursday to talk it out of the decision for the workers to be readmitted.