As readers will know the local press is in crisis. The Wembley and Harrow Observer went over to on-line only with extremley limited coverage of local news and the Brent and Kilburn Times is much reduced in size and coverage as a result of staff cuts.
Now Newsquest, publisher of local newspapers is making staff redundant as this press release from the NUJ reports:
Newsquest’s
chief executive Henry Faure Walker’s pay and perks have passed the £1m
mark, but scores of journalists face being made redundant just in time
for Christmas. Others have been told their meagre overtime
and anti-social hours’ payments will be pared down.
Newspapers
throughout the group have been told jobs will go and payments for
working bank holidays and weekends and mileage rates will be cut. This
follows a year of job losses, title closures and cuts which
have all taken their toll on staff, as a group-wide stress survey has
shown. Reps said the latest round was “potentially hazardous to health –
both physically and mentally”.
The Newsquest November cull has become such a regular feature that it has been given its own festive hashtag of
#Scroogequest
Union
reps met on Monday 27 November to discuss the situation. Newsquest
refuses to consult the union on a national level, despite it being
obvious that all its newspapers are controlled centrally by the group.
One rep called the latest round of cuts “insane” since it will be
impossible for the remaining staff to take on the extra work.
Staff at Darlington have decided to ballot for industrial action and the ballot will start on Thursday 7 December.
In
York, where The Press, Gazette & Herald, York Herald and Yorkshire
Living are published, three staff jobs are at risk of redundancy,
including the popular arts editor, and no editing staff will work on
Sundays. At the Bradford Telegraph and Argus the five roles are at risk
with three newsdesk jobs to be cut to one, and an edition dropped,
while the number of journalists on the Craven Herald and Ilkley Gazette
will be reduced from three to two. In south London
the staff’s work-to-rule is one year old. A sub-editor and freelance
photographer have recently been cut. In Glasgow, several long-serving
staff have agreed to leave, with some negotiating freelance contracts
with Newsquest. After the editors of The Herald
and Evening Times step down in December, Newsquest's flagship titles
will be run by a single editor-in-chief, Donald Martin.
Newsquest
plans to shut the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard’s office in
Cirencester with two editorial roles at risk of redundancy. The company
also plans to reduce the number of sports editors working
at three sister titles – the Standard, the Gloucestershire Gazette and
the Stroud News & Journal – from three to two. Consultations will be
completed at the end of the month and the Standard’s office will close
at the end of December if the proposals go ahead.
Fears that cuts would inevitably follow the sale of the Isle of Wight
County Press have proved correct – Newsquest has called for voluntary
redundancies four months after it bought out the independent publisher.
The Newsquest NUJ group chapel
said: “Reps from around the group met and relayed an appalling array of
job cuts in key areas of the newsrooms and arrogant moves to strip away
the small recognition staff
get for the sacrifices they make for working bank holidays and
weekends.
“The
cuts are relentless and pitiless and are potentially hazardous to
health – both physically and mentally – as the comprehensive NUJ stress
survey completed just a few months ago showed.
“We
demand that senior managers carry out their legal duties and take a grip
on the clear safety concerns that are flashing red throughout the
group. They cannot be Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of the
implications of their demands to local managers to meet unrealistic
financial targets. Our members deserve safe and healthy workplaces where
they have the resources to produce quality journalism and have enough
pay to support themselves and their families.
This cannot be too much to ask when their boss has just celebrated his
pay package yielding £1 million with the meter still ticking and the
year-end still a month away.”
Chris Morley, Newsquest NUJ group co-ordinator,
said: “Newsquest is addicted to cuts in a way that gamblers are to
fixed odd betting machines. This is no strategy for the short-term –
never mind the long-term. Savage cuts have not worked in the past 10
years, so why do they think it will turn the company’s fortunes around
now? We strongly urge senior management to take
matters in hand. Give long-suffering staff the break they so
desperately need and reverse the strategy into one of investment. With
no debt, the company can clearly afford this, but what it can’t afford
is a broken and demoralised workforce that is driven
into the ground.”
The
survey, which used a traffic light system to evaluate the levels of
stress, took place during the second half of August and September 2017
among Newsquest NUJ members and attracted a strong response with
115 completed surveys.
In a
letter relaying the results to Newsquest, Chris Morey said: “I would
hope that you recognise the fact that five of the seven categories of
‘stressors’ - demands, managers’ support, relationships, role,
and change - were all red – was extremely serious. Even in the
remaining two categories – control and peer support – the amber score
showed that there was a ‘clear need for improvement’. Of the 32
questions asked, only one, ‘I have a choice in deciding how
I do my work’, was scored lower than red or amber.”
Anonymous comments from journalists taking part in the survey said:
“I
often feel stressed, under pressure and don’t take enough screen
breaks, or breaks in general. Even taking holidays, because of lack of
staff, is a stressful business. I work very long hours. Because
I often work remotely, as they closed our office, I am alone and
isolated.”
“The lack of organisation, harassment of colleagues and a bullying line-manager have created unprecedented stress levels.”
“Pressure of online demands means working at lightning speed for up to 12 hours a day with no real break.”
“I am concerned that cracks are appearing in my health that are directly linked to the job.”
Chris Morley
concluded: “It is a fundamental legal responsibility of management to
provide a safe and healthy working environment. It is the NUJ contention
that,
in many Newsquest centres, the company is at risk of not complying with
this legal requirement. To date, we believe the company’s response has
not been adequate, particularly as there is a lack of faith that
anything positive will be done to address failings
locally, given the relentless corporate pressure of cost-cutting and
staff reductions.”
Find out how much Faure Walker has made using the NUJ’s pay meter - many of his staff haven’t yet hit £20,000
