Staff stage walkout at Nelonen TV-news over planned redundancies
Protests, too, at Etelä-Suomen Sanomat
The evening news broadcast of commercial TV channel Nelonen was blacked out on Tuesday after personnel walked off the job in protest at plans to dismiss or put on part-time contracts a total of 35 members of staff.
Nelonen, which is owned by the Sanoma Group, who also own this newspaper, has held codetermination talks with newsroom staff, including journalists and technical personnel.
A total of 75 people work there on permanent contracts, and a further eight have fixed-term working agreements.
The reason for the need to cut back on staff has been a decision to downsize news broadcasts from half an hour to fifteen minutes by the summer.
However, a shop steward noted on Tuesday that to produce a 15-minute news bulletin, radio news, and an online news service would not be possible with the slimmed-down manning, which would be roughly half the size of the existing workforce.
The bulk of the Nelonen news staff are in their 30s and 40s, so there is really no way the employer could introduce early-retirement packages, leaving only redundancies or part-time arrangements as the way forward.
A similar demonstration was held at the editorial offices of the Lahti newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat on Tuesday, after the paper announced it was making redundant seven of its journalists - all over the age of 57.
The reason given was falling advertising sales.
Journalists walked out in protest in mid-afternoon, and Wednesday's paper was put together by senior editors.
Helsingin Sanomat
