Fairfax journalists strike over loss of 80 jobs at The Age, Sydney Morning Herald

Updated

Fairfax staff have gone on strike for 24 hours in protest after the company announced it was set to cut about 80 full-time positions across newsrooms in Sydney and Melbourne.

On Wednesday, staff at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald were told the cuts were focused on the "continuing transformation of the business".

Fairfax said its contract with copyediting firm Pagemasters was due to expire soon and it was "in the process of reviewing these external arrangements".

As a result, 35 editorial jobs were on the line, 30 photographers would lose their jobs and 15 positions would be lost from the Life magazine division, the company said, as any "new arrangements will absorb more copy-editing and page layout work".

In an email to staff the managing director of Australian Publishing Media, Allen Williams, said Fairfax would rely on Getty Images for the bulk of its photographic work.

"Our photographic needs across all platforms continue to be commissioned by editorial; however, most assignments will be facilitated by Getty photographers for our publications," he said.

"Fairfax retains the copyright in the photos and they will be for Fairfax's exclusive use.

"The changes we are proposing are similar to the more progressive and efficient models being used by other media organisations around the world."

The cuts will be made by December this year.

Later, staff from other Fairfax publications, including The Australian Financial Review, The Illawarra Mercury, The Newcastle Herald and The Canberra Times, said they would strike, although it was unclear whether those newsrooms would be affected by the cuts.

Journalists from the Brisbane Times website, also Fairfax-owned, said on Twitter a motion had been passed to "wholly support our southern colleagues" and not produce content for any other Fairfax mastheads.

The managing director of Australian Publishing Media, which generates content for Fairfax's mastheads, has warned staff that strike action could cost them their jobs.

In an email to employees, Mr Williams said the strike was "unlawful" and encouraged them to continue working.

He said the company would dock a minimum of four hours' pay and consider disciplinary action, including terminating employment for anyone who strikes.

In a statement, Fairfax said it was "disappointed" by the strike, but would continue to publish across its print and digital formats as per usual.

"The company has commenced a meaningful consultation process about the proposed changes and has planned further briefings with affected employees and their representatives," it said.

Media union representative Stuart Washington says many of the redundancies will be forced, and will come under the pressure of a short consultation period.

"Management has been running around securing commercial agreement for third parties outside the organisation and the consultation process they're allowing for their workers, who've worked for the organisation for the best part of their lives in some cases, is one week," he said.

"I find that appalling, frankly."

He says Mr Williams's threat to sack protesting staff is both disappointing and draconian.

"He would become a pioneer in the worst way in industrial relations in Australia if he pursued that agenda, and I think that's an unfortunate communication," he said.

Cuts 'an assault on quality journalism'

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) federal secretary Christopher Warren called the cuts "an assault on the quality journalism" that might lead to a decline in the volume and quality of content.

He said the cuts, which equate to about 10 per cent of staff, would further erode the ability of staff to do their jobs.

"It strips a massive loss in skills, experience and knowledge from the group," he said.

"Fairfax seems incapable of deciding on new production arrangements and sticking with them.

"The only decision the company seems capable of making is to keep cutting staff."

Mr Warren said the industry was going though a difficult time.

"I think this more seriously shows a decision by the company to more and more rely on outsourcing," he said.

"These will not be just net savings, there will be significant costs involved in outsourcing significant amounts of the work.

"Because they're not suggesting they're going to do any less, they're just going to have contractors and outsourced people providing it."

Topics: journalism, unions, unemployment, media, print-media, melbourne-3000, canberra-2600, sydney-2000

First posted