Imprint speaks of “self-destruction” in Tamedia job cuts
Published: Tuesday, Aug 27th 2024, 11:10
Retour au fil d'actualité
The professional association of media professionals in Switzerland, Impressum, has reacted with indignation to the job cuts announced by Tamedia. The "catastrophic" redundancy measures are excessive and their implementation has been rushed, the professional association announced on Tuesday.
In particular, Impressum took issue with the payment of dividends of CHF 65 million by the TX Group, owner of Tamedia, according to the press release. These figures date back to March 2024, when the Group announced a tripling of its profit at the same time.
The professional association demanded that profits should no longer be distributed as long as restructuring measures are being carried out or are imminent. They should rather be invested in reserves and in journalism in order to be able to absorb future market fluctuations or redundancies, it continued.
Impressum also spoke of a "self-destructive corporate strategy" and mentioned the 80 redundancies from 2023. On the short message service X, the association wrote: "Once again: really bad. Imprint calls for a stop to redundancies and a halt to the march. The management's strategy contains no strategy. It's just the destructive greed of the big shareholders." Impressum criticized the fact that there had been no communication about how the editorial offices should now function in practice.
Syndicom also criticizes dividend payments
The Syndicom trade union also had clear words, calling on Tamedia to correct its corporate strategy in a statement. In the last 15 years, shareholders of the TX Group, owner of Tamedia, have siphoned off more than CHF 670 million in dividends from a profit of CHF 2.2 billion, while at the same time Tamedia has made hundreds of employees redundant, Stephanie Vonarburg, Vice President and Head of the Media Sector at Syndicom, is quoted in the statement. According to Vonarburg, the TX Group remains highly profitable and the "downsizing policy without regard for employees" must come to an end.
Syndicom also announced that it would work with the staff committees to preserve jobs, improve the social plan and working conditions.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic