New Delhi: In view of the large number of lay offs and salary cuts announced by several media organisations, the National Alliance of Journalists (NAJ) and Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) have accused media owners of using the nationwide lockdown announced to combat the spread of COVID-19 as “an excuse for retrenchment and arbitrary pay cuts”.
In a statement, they said the novel coronavirus was “a national crisis and the pain of dealing with this crisis must be accepted by media companies and their shareholders, not passed on to vulnerable employees.”
`Media companies turning lockdown into a lockout’
Stating that “media owners are claiming that they are severely affected by the lockdown, that circulations and advertising have fallen and therefore they are resorting to these measures,” the groups expressed shock at “reports pouring in of sackings and pay cuts in the media at this critical time.”
They added that “in 2016 the media industry misused the demonetisation decision to enforce mass retrenchments”, and “today some media companies are threatening to turn the lockdown into a lockout.”
‘Reprehensible that Times of India Group should be firing employees’
Pointing to the crisis that has emerged in the print newspaper industry in particular, NAJ-DUJ president S.K.Pande, DUJ general secretary Sujata Madhok, NAJ secretary general N. Kondaiah and APWJF general secretary G. Anjaneyulu said:
“It is reprehensible that the richest media company, the Times of India group, should resort to firing employees although it can well afford to keep them on the payroll. Employee costs are a small percentage of the huge profits the company makes. Those sacked now include people who have dutifully worked for them for over two decades, contributing to the growth and wealth of the company.”
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This statement was in reference to the newspaper group closing down its Sunday magazine section. One of its senior journalists, Nona Walia, had written in her Facebook post about the lay-offs:
“The entire team of Sunday magazine of Times of India asked to leave. Got a call from my boss Poonam Singh. Sacked after 24 years from a company I served with love for more than two decades. Wow.”
Indian Express cut salaries from 10% to 30%
The NAJ-DUJ office bearers also referred to cutting of pay by the Indian Express group. A few days ago a note sent by CEO George Verghese to the employees got widely circulated. It read: “Our advertising revenues have been hit hard and all available evidence shows the worst may be yet to come.” Further it declared that the staff would have to undergo a graded pay cuts ranging between 10% and 30%, with some senior management and editors taking a 100% salary cut.
Referring to this development, the NAJ-DUJ office bearers said: “The Indian Express group has enforced pay cuts ranging from ten to thirty percent. Reports are also coming in from the states of the closure of print editions of several dailies.”
The association representatives said “if the newspaper industry is ‘losing money every day’, as the Indian Newspaper Society has written to the Union Government, it should reconsider its policy of deliberately depressing newspaper prices and depending wholly on advertisement revenues. It now wants a government handout in the form of removal of 5% customs duty on newsprint, a two-year tax holiday, a 50% increase in DAVP advertisement rates and a 100% increase in budget spend for print media. But what largesse is it giving the employees?”
The Quint makes employees go on leave without pay
The statement also mentioned how the web media was also cutting salaries, making staffers go on leave without pay or simply laying them off. “The Quint has sent almost half its staff on leave without pay besides enforcing pay cuts for the rest,” it said.
A note sent by the organisation to its employees had stated: “We are forced to request you to proceed on a ‘furlough’ (ie, leave without pay, LWP) wef the 15th of April, until further notice. Your pay for the half-month, from April 1 through 15, shall be processed and released very soon.”
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Pain in electronic media too
The NAJ-DUJ representatives also raised the issue of problems faced by the electronic media. “We wish to point out that hundreds of journalists across the country are currently risking their lives and persons to report news about the spread of the virus and the impact of the lockdown. Some employees at the Times TV studio in Mumbai have reportedly contracted the virus and their colleagues have been shifted to a different location to carry on their work. Journalists today are frontline warriors and deserve support in doing their jobs. Instead, sudden pay cuts and sackings are destroying the morale of media persons today.”
Incidentally, several news channels have also laid off their staff members in the recent past. One of these was News Nation Network which, according to those impacted by the decision, laid off its full English digital team of 15 without any termination notice or an opportunity to serve the notice period.
A former employee, Shashikant Sharma had posted on Linkedin about the crisis:
“Guys, in a very unfortunate decision, News Nation has sacked entire English digital team yesterday. Many of my colleagues were left with no job in the middle of this crisis. The team includes hardworking journalists and social media executives. They are looking for jobs. Fortunately I quit the place a month before. But they need out help now. If anyone can help them in their hour of need, will be appreciated. PS: News Nation sucks. Let’s boycott them. Raghwendra Shukla.”
Web portal Newslaundary cited one of the employees as saying that he got a call from the editor-in-chief Manoj Gairola who said: “The company is going through a financial crisis due to the pandemic so we have to do this.”
PM’s appeal ignored by big media houses
Meanwhile, the journalists’ associations have also said that these decisions by the media organisations have been taken despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi in several of his recent addresses to the nation appealing to employers to show empathy and not deduct salaries of or sack their employees during the lockdown.
“The NAJ and DUJ expresses solidarity with those impacted by the arbitrary moves of media moguls. We demand that media companies immediately restore the jobs and salaries of all employees,” the statement by the NAJ-DUJ office bearers said.