Le Temps dismisses ten people
The editorial staff at Le Temps is being downsized. The editorial staff responded to impending layoffs by Ringier with voluntary departures. While Ringier refers to a «good agreement,» the editorial staff is concerned about the quality of the newspaper.
Eight redundancies (7.3 full-time positions) were announced to the editorial team on Monday, Daniel Pillard told the SDA news agency on Thursday. Pillard is Director of Ringier Romandie. The newspaper's editorial and staff association had then presented the management with a list of ten people who wanted to leave Le Temps voluntarily. According to Pillard, these ten people correspond to 8.8 full-time positions. Ringier had agreed to replace its own list with that of the staff association, provided the number of departures did not exceed ten and the newspaper's production was not affected, Pillard said. Because the voluntary departures are well distributed, the newspaper is not in danger. The people affected can leave immediately. They will be paid five salaries - two wages more than stipulated in their contract. Technically, however, these are redundancies. This means that those affected will not be disadvantaged by the unemployment fund, said Pillard. He spoke of a good outcome to the talks with the social partners.
Editorial team concerned about the quality of the newspaper
The editorial and staff association of Le Temps does not share the optimism of the director of Ringier Romandie. One member criticized to sda the enormous price for the editorial team, which is concerned about the working rhythm and quality of the newspaper. The association nevertheless welcomed the fact that Ringier Romandie had agreed to create a kind of "counter for redundancy candidatures". According to the member of the editorial association, eight journalists are among the ten dismissed. The Ringier media company took over the daily newspaper Le Temps in April 2014 (Werbewoche.ch reported). Previously, the newspaper was 46.2 percent owned by Tamedia and Ringier. As Ringier Romandie employs around 250 people, this is not a mass redundancy. The procedure laid down for this only applies to redundancies of at least ten percent of the workforce, which would correspond to 25 employees. The journalists' association Impressum regretted the "painful" redundancies in a press release, but welcomed the fact that an alternative solution could be negotiated.
Newsroom from May
In addition to the downsized editorial team, there are other changes at Le Temps. On May 2, the joint newsroom with L'Hebdo and Edelweiss in Lausanne will go into operation. The merger of the editorial teams was already announced last September. Around 90 journalists will work in the newsroom, including 70 from Le Temps, around 15 from L'Hebdo and 5 from Edelweiss. Only around ten employees will remain at Le Temps' previous headquarters in Geneva.
Edelweiss: Staff halved
At the beginning of March, Ringier announced that the women's magazine Edelweiss would be merging with its Swiss-German counterpart Bolero (Werbewoche.ch reported). As a result of the merger, the Edelweiss staff will now be halved to five people. The remaining employees will be brought together in the Life Style Factory, which produces the corresponding pages for Le Temps, L'Hebdo and
will produce the French-speaking Swiss edition of Bolero. (SDA)
