National Union of Workers (NUW)
100 signatures reached
To: Newspoll management
Newspoll management - treat your workers with respect!
On May 4, News Corp announced that it would be closing flagship polling house, Newspoll, and making more than 150 staff redundant. Workers found out about this through an article in the Australian newspaper. On May 9, Newspoll NUW members voted unanimously in demanding that management treat its workers with respect, and provide in parting the following reasonable conditions:
1. Severance pay for all current employees regardless of time worked.
2. Offer letters of reference, rather than ‘statements of service’, to all current employees in appreciation of effort and contribution to the company.
3. Offer employees who are close to fulfilling 456 hours in the past twelve months, enough work to make up those hours between now and the formal close date - in order to meet requirements for redundancy
4. Offer recently hired employees enough work to complete their 50-hour training period.
Workers have since met with Newspoll management, and their response has been dismissive and disrespectful. We call on management to start treating its workers with the basic respect and dignity they deserve, in honouring these reasonable demands.
Why is this important?
Newspoll has been the gold standard of polling in Australia for the past 30 years. This has been, in large part, due to the efforts of its phone interviewers.
News Corp has decided to close its flagship pollster and continue to conduct research using robot polling, as part of a range of cost-cutting measures. This means the redundancy of more than 150 phone interviewers - some with more than a decade of service to the company.
The company has also decided to cut the respect and dignity it affords its employees. Workers found out they would lose their jobs in the Australian newspaper, hours before Newspoll CEO Martin O'Shannessy sent out a release to interviewers.
Management has made it clear they believe that interviewers are not entitled to anything more than a statement of service, and a small redundancy only accessible to workers who meet criteria which have been nearly impossible to obtain for all but a handful of staff.
Newspoll and News Corp have decided to ignore the reasonable demands of their loyal workers, and replace more than 150 jobs with robots. Workers feel as though they are just being treated with contempt. It is not too much to ask that Newspoll and News Corp do the right thing by their workers.
How it will be delivered
This petition will be delivered to News Headquarters in Sydney, by Newspoll union members.
