Global Media reiterates “the importance of the commitment it has made to the workers and to the sustainability” of the company, but adds that the costs of the operation have worsened with the war and the rise in prices.
On Saturday, Global Media workers expressed their apprehension and dismay at the terms of the mutually agreed termination program proposed by the administration last week and wants proof of the financial situation of the group, which owns Diário de Notícias (DN), Jornal de Notícias (JN) and TSF, among others.
Global Media intends reduce operating costs and proposed, by email, a mutually agreed termination program for the workers of all the companies in the group who wish to join.
In a statement released on social networks on Sunday, the management of the Global Media Group (GMG), led by Marco Galinha, begins by recalling that took over two years ago (2020) and who “implemented a salary increase program in July 2021 that allowed 75 people to increase their salary, something that had not happened in the group for more than a decade.”
The administration, he adds, “also proceeded with the integration of new interns and the conversion of internships into stable employment.”
GMG points out that “the restructuring project implemented with positive results suffered, as in the entire media sector, the Impact of lockdowns and Covid and, subsequently, the operating costs of Global Media Group, as a result of the war in Ukraine, increased as a result of the simultaneous increase in the price of paper, energy and fuels».
Despite this, “the management reiterates the importance of the commitment it has assumed with the workers and with the sustainability of Global Media Group”.
The day before, in a letter to GMG management, the union committee expressed “deep apprehension” about the content of the email received by the workers.
The announcement of the opening of a mutually agreed termination program is not, in itself, questionable. What is questionable and reprehensible is the possibility, advanced in the email, that, in case of non-compliance, ‘any restructuring measure subject to a less favorable regime’ will be taken”, the letter says.
In the email sent, Global Media justifies that the “recent situation was greatly aggravated by the current period of the war [..] a new corporate reorganization is imperative”.
In the letter, the union commission, which brings together union delegates of various titles in the group, is “dismayed” by the “construction” of email and questions the reason given about the need to reduce personnel costs.
The financial difficulties resulting from the effects of the war in Ukraine, with rising inflation, fuel and energy, affect all businesses and families. They also affect the workers of the group who have not risen for 16 years, “they say in the letter.
The workers’ representatives also point to a number of reasons why they find the redundancy program incomprehensible, namely the increased readership onlinea 9% increase in sales last year, compared to 2020, to 35 million euros and also the fact that in 2020 there was a “restructuring” which resulted in the “collective dismissal of 81 workers, including 17 journalists,” among other reasons.
“Given all this, it is not clear if there are difficulties or not,” say the workers, who argue that “blind cuts have been the only strategy” of the administration, with the “war now appearing as a mere pretext.”
For this reason, the workers urge the administration to present the accounts to certify the financial situation of the group and reveal the expense with external services, as well as publicize the plan they have for the company.
“The departure of more workers, either by friendly dismissal or by other means, endangers the future of the different titles of GMG and of the journalism that is practiced there”, they underline.
Source: Observadora
