Jobs are saved by FT chapel’s determination
JOURNALISTS at the Financial Times have saved six jobs threatened with compulsory redundancy — and a further round of redundancies has been dropped because of imminent industrial action after a big chapel meeting voted overwhelmingly to hold a strike ballot.
When Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of the owners, Pearson, addressed staff she was wearing a Stand Up for Journalism sticker handed out by NUJ members on the door.
Activists challenged the board’s right to take millions in bonuses when staff could be thrown out of the building into the deepest recession for decades.
For years the Pearson board paid stellar bonuses and dividends instead of putting money aside to protect staff when the economy turned down.
The further redundancies would have been on the subs’ desks – a fact confirmed by a management document mistakenly left on a photocopier.