Four Fairfax execs get $2.4m pay hike as staff at two biggest publishers battle for rise
Australia’s two biggest newspaper publishers have drawn the ire of their own staff in recent days as they refuse to match inflation in their salary negotiations.
Today’s Fairfax results revealed the senior executive team of four people had a combined pay rise of $2.4m during the year, including CEO Greg Hywood whose salary package rose $900,000, at a time when newsrooms are facing ongoing job cuts.
In ongoing pay negotiations Fairfax’s first offer to staff saw no automatic pay rises proffered, and a proposal to reduce the amount it pays those who work after 6pm, while at News Corp Australia a staff vote involving more than 1,200 people yesterday on the current enterprise bargaining agreement saw 83 per cent vote against the deal.
News Corp staff campaign for a better offer have placed posters including a fake NT News front page headlined “Staff tell News Corp management IT’S A CROC” and have published the lavish menu from The Australian’s much-hyped 50th anniversary VIP party around the building.
no moral values – it’s a wonder they can even sleep at night…
According to The Newspaper works, Fairfax made a $224M profit in 2014, up from $16 mill loss in 2013. But $220 million came from the sale of Stayz. So the profit was really about $ 4 million. Of which MOST, $2.4 million, will go to pay increases for the 4 top execs.
Wow.
Greed alive and well…… deplorable
Reward for failure, I want a job like that
So according to a report on the aus, Gail Hambly is defending the big increase in the incentives paid to top execs (including herself) on the grounds that ” the management was prepared to back itself to achieve set targets — something the journalists are refusing to do”. So when did fairfax start offering it’s journos the opportunity to earn a bonus or get shares based on achievement of performance targets?
We’re all doing a lot of work to make sure the company increases in value – more work than we had to do a few years ago, in the same amount of time and with less resources. Why don’t we get shares too?
Hambly is strangely central to these leaked emails. Last time it was also a Cato missive. What is it that hambly actually does?
Management apparently selling the family Silver in order to get their yearly bonuses. Fairfax is done. Any journalist or employee not bailing out at this point really has no one else to blame as their income shrinks.
Another pearler of an example of why you do not want to invest in these old school businesses. They are competing and slowly being eroded away by the new school, leaner businesses. Old boy networks, sitting on boards and ruining businesses. Great companies are made up of a long tail of talent, not a load of old greedy fossils in an ivory tower.
Could someone from the MEAA get vocal and run through the wins they’ve had over News and Fairfax in the last ten years?
i bet they voted liberal too.
No one at Fairfax votes Liberal, this is more like the Labor Obeid alleged rort