Telegraph Media Group is to stop using casual staff altogether next month when it creates 40 new permanent jobs focusing on new media skills such as mapping and managing data.
Executive director, editorial, Richard Ellis wrote to casual staff on the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk last week inviting them to apply for the ‘wide-ranging and exciting’jobs, which are advertised on the company intranet.
The letter says there will be: ‘around 18 content editors, a new role for TMG, for multi-skilled journalists who are able to do everything from write, to commission, to edit, to produce both across online and print.”
There will also be six new reporting jobs, seven ‘new world’jobs such as ‘a data mapping expert’and a ‘digital technologist’plus five part-time production journalist roles.
From 13 October, the final application date for the production jobs, TMG ‘will no longer use casuals whatsoever”, Ellis said.
The company is advising casuals to seek work elsewhere in case they are not successful and is setting up a meeting room at its Buckingham Palace Road offices to act as a ‘resource centre’for one month for those affected to help them find alternative work.
‘There will be four computers attached to printers for you to use to search for work, to write and send CVs etc, as well as relevant publications that carry job advertisements,’Ellis’s letter said.
TMG will also hold seminars on how to find work from searching to applying as well as financial advice sessions.
The National Union of Journalists has criticised TMG for proposing to scrap the current nine-day fortnight currently enjoyed by 65 production staff, in return for a £2,000 payment.
General Secretary Jeremy Dear said last month when the initial plans were announced to staff: ‘Although the creation of new jobs makes good headlines, the proposals to end the use of casuals will be of serious concern to freelances at the papers, whilst permanent employees will be extremely anxious about the implications for their hours and working patterns.
‘The union will now be holding weekly meetings with management to discuss the proposals in more detail.”
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