Staff set to be asked to take week’s unpaid leave
Now it’s getting desperate:
Regional newspaper publisher Newsquest is understood to be poised to ask its entire staff of more than 6,000 to take a week unpaid holiday in a bid to cut costs.
Senior management across the group, which publishes titles including the Brighton Argus and Glasgow’s Herald & Times, have already been asked to accept the measure and a similar request is expected at all staff in the near future.
The move follows US parent company Gannett asking its 31,000 staff in the US last month to take a “furlough”, a week off without pay, by the end of March.
At the time, Gannett executives in the US said the unpaid leave was necessary to avert layoffs amid a global recession and an ongoing downturn in the newspaper business.
Newsquest, which publishes 17 daily newspapers and around 200 weekly papers across the UK, is likely to save a significant sum from effectively reducing the wage of its employees.
Read the rest of The Guardian report here.
Follow Alan on 
