Murdoch's employees pay the price of News of the World scandal with no consultation

Posted by Cath Everett in Business lifestyle on Fri, 08/07/2011 - 08:23


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Some 200 NoW journalists have lost their jobs after the last edition of the newspaper went out on Sunday 10 July 2011. Sub-editors at sister tabloid The Sun walked out last week in protest. Affected journalists have been told they will receive a 90-day payment to cover the legally-required consultation period of job cuts.

 

 
But the NUJ’s general secretary Michelle Stanistreet reacted angrily to the move. “This outrageous manipulation of the legal right to be consulted on redundancies shows the contempt that the Murdoch empire has for its loyal staff. True to form, he believes he can buy his way out of his obligations.”
 
The pay-out was simply an “act of damage limitation” to try and salvage his own reputation and that of News International, both of which were “now tarnished beyond repair”, she added.
 
The NoW, which has been running for 168 years and was bought by Murdoch in 1969, will carry no commercial advertising on Sunday in the wake of the scandal, which resulted in organisation after organisation pulling their business in a bid not to be tainted by it.
 
It is expected to be replaced by a Sunday version of The Sun after News International registered the internet domain names TheSunOnSunday.co.uk, TheSunOnSunday.com and SunOnSunday.co.uk two days ago.
 
But Stanistreet said: “Closing the title and sacking over 200 staff in the UK and Ireland, and putting scores more freelancers and casuals out of a job, is an act of utter cynical opportunism. Murdoch is clearly banking on his drawing a line under the scandal, removing an obstacle to the BSkyB deal, and letting his senior executives off the hook. That simply won’t wash.”
 
Although “ordinary working journalists” were paying the price for the actions of senior managers, it was not they who were responsible for today’s situation. Those people were still in a job, she added.

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Editor's Note - May 10

Had a busy week with two days at the Responsible Business Summit in London. What struck me was the appetite for sustainability in the corporate world. I spoke to senior figures from multinationals who knew wholeheartedly that businesses in the future would not succeed if the society around them failed.

Much of this appetite was understandably focused on collaboration - the future of sustainability. Words that were previously indicative of success - power, might, scale, size - are no longer enough in the open source, peer-reviewed future where opponents will not simply grumble and moan and then leave you in peace. Companies must work with governments, NGOs, charities and social enterprises as a matter of course. And even competitors, where necessary.

Facilitating this collaboration is the big challenge of the next five years. Highly-strung and ego-centric companies, feverish with the need to protect their brand, will struggle the most, but it's either adapt or die.

The business/charity relationship is one of the most interesting focal points. Business power can drive positive social change in so many ways but charities are the key holders to communities. As businesses are expected more and more to play a stake in the future, charity partnerships should be top of the corporate priority list. Businesses that don't work closely with a charity will find themselves with reputational problems.

There's a lot more to CSR, of course, but collaboration is the bedding on which CSR will rest. Businesses can no longer find the answers to all their problems in their own resources and assets.

And for many that's a scary thought.

Any thoughts, thoughts or questions, drop me a line on editor@hrzone.co.uk.

Best wishes

Jamie

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