Regional publisher Johnston Press has extended the deadline for staff to apply for its voluntary redundancy programme.
The group announced last month that it was offering its employees an enhanced voluntary redundancy package in a bid to further reduce costs.
The deadline for staff to apply for redundancy was initially last Friday but has now been extended for a further week, which a company spokeswoman said was because of the October half-term.
It is not yet know how many people have taken up the offer but the National Union of Journalists has raised concerns about the potential scale of the redundancies.
Paul Holleran, Scottish organiser at the NUJ, said Johnston Press and the union had agreed a consultation process about the redundancies across the group and the impact it would have.
He said: “The union has highlighted the concern over the workload for the people who remain.
“The company has given a commitment that this will be one of their priorities. They are looking at what the impact is going to be.”
A Johnston Press spokeswoman said once applications had been received, each one would have to be looked at and a decision made.
When the voluntary redundancy programme was announced, chief executive Ashley Highfield said there was a need for further “rescaling” to ensure financial targets were met.
Company results published in March showed that Johnston Press reduced staff numbers by 23pc during 2012, with 1,300 jobs going.
The cutbacks achieved savings of £37.6m during the year, which helped the company to reduce its net debt from £351m to £319m.
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If they are extending it because of half term then why is it ending tomorrow (close of business on 31st) and not the following week?
The reason we all know is that not enough production staff from the big city centers have applied. Instead they have been inundated with offers from editorial staff and ad reps, neither of which they want to have to let go this time but may be forced into.
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Not sure how many production staff are left in the larger centres since Pre-press and Studio work went to India. Some centres retained these staff (not sure on what criteria) so perhaps JP will look to make further savings here and have it all outsourced. Ad reps seem rarely to be targeted, but I’m sure some of their longer serving staff will have volunteered and if times are so bad, should be allowed to go. Without reaching a new deal with the banks, however, the financial targets will be almost impossible to meet whilst still retaining enough staff to produce products of the previous quality and not relying on increased content from readers.
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I heard from the mouth of a JP manager that production staff were the ones being targeted.
I know that 12 members of a feature production team in one center got a visit from HR and their MD strongly advising them to take the offer as if they didn’t then the next time the word ‘voluntary’ would be missing from the announcement.
Ad staff are protected from VR. They can apply but they will not be accepted.
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Hope Trinity Mirror do this soon…..
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It’s not entirely voluntary when management are scurrying round ‘encouraging’ people to go. It’s not just production staff they want rid either. If you’ve got a camera better than the one on an HTC smartphone, then watch out.
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What a mess
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Center? Where was this? Florida?
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What is a ‘feature production team’?
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Extended because of half-term? Arrant cobblers, if they suddenly realise when half term falls do they not know it varies around the country? Just tells us JP top table either doesn’t have kids or can afford to send them to private school, lucky them. Sadly it clearly means JP is struggling to get the numbers in the queue for the door it needs but lacks the guts, or a plan, to implement surgery demanded by the money men which will stll leave a credible business. These constant extensions are descending into farce, and what happens next is unlikely to be pretty. Meanwhile the bumbling excuses just bring new HR and management top tier into further disrepute, if that were possible, and the prospect is that what remains will be too many of the wrong people in the wrong places and nobody with the ability or the passion to sort that out. Man the lifeboats!
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So we’ve got hard-working and much-loved members of staff – including receptionists on just £13,000-a-year – being encouraged to leave the business yet at the same time we keep getting emails about chiefs being appointed to senior roles which appear to have been created by the fairies overnight. You’ve got to love JP logic.
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A fine profitable company (Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers), destroyed by the mismanagement of Johnston Press.
The VR terms currently on offer are far more generous than the CR terms imposed on the 81 production staff at Sunderland last October.
After 30 years of employment with P&SN / JP I am genuinely sorry that it has come to this for remaining employees.
Rescaling my A***.
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I hear from a JP manager that they are looking to move the rest of the workload to India and move the Property Production Operation from Northampton to Preston.
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It’s not really fair this.
If I don’t take the ‘enhanced’ offer now, will I be forced to take an ‘unenhanced’ offer in six months from now. If they intended this VR for my colleagues and I specifically, why couldn’t they have the decency to make us aware.
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I agree with you Observer.
Baz – even though all Leeds work supposedly went to India, I have heard that there are some pre-press/creative staff still employed there, despite being given their redundancy packages well over a year ago.
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Looks like the comment by ‘Hmmm’ was said with some knowledge – just spoken to a former colleague at a JP title and it’s real ‘night of the long knives’ stuff for the photographic desks. Everyone (and I mean everyone) is getting the boot with the diary jobs going to freelancers. Dark, dark times for the dark room crew.
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I’m so confused. I’ve filled in my form and have about an hour left to decide whether to send it in.
It’s so hard to make a decision when the company has given us no idea what it’s plan is – you can’t plan your life around rumours and suspicions.
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Surely anyone with any sense has already got out, haven’t they?
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baz – moving the property makes no sense at all. the property team have built up a huge amount of knowlege of the foibles of various estate agents, now all that knowlege will be lost and the agents will lose confidence.
why throw away an established team and risk losing agents in the process. surely property is one of the few areas in the paper that still brings in good money?
no disrepect meant to preston as i’m sure they’re capable, the problem is that as much as they may know how to use the programme they don’t know the agents like the existing property team do.
jp have lost their grip on what matters
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As a relative of a Johnson Press employee who has had notice of being made redundant, I am amazed at the management of the company. The consultation they speak of does not take place quick enough, leaving the person being made redundant “hanging in the air” feeling sick and angry not knowing what is happening and rumours spread like wildfire.
I am looking for someone to clean my pond out this winter. Management of Johnson Press need not apply!
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