Finland Finnish TV YLE

FINNISH STATE BROADCASTING COMPANY YLE TO SHED 74 JOBS IN CUTBACK PLAN…….

3126 more people to go.

cork-001

That, or it goes fully private, there is no need for a public tax funded news and broadcasting company in this modern era. They talk about streamlining, why not take a major axe to the faux news dept., which is comprised of political hacks anyway?

National broadcaster Yle to cut 74 permanent jobs

National broadcaster Yle announced Wednesday that it had concluded retrenchment talks aimed at streamlining spending. The organisation said it would send home 74 permanent workers and reduce its complement of fixed-term contract workers.

Yleisradion linkkitorni Helsingin Pasilassa.
Image: Jyrki Lyytikkä / Yle

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) said Wednesday that it had decided to terminate the equivalent of 160 jobs, 74 of them permanent positions. The remainder of the cuts would be met by a reduction of the use of fixed-term contract workers.

The brunt of the cuts focused on the production unit, where 50 positions were eliminated. A total of 10 permanent positions were dropped from the news and current affairs division.

Yle had previously estimated that it would have to reduce its workforce by up to 185 workers. Company chief executive Lauri Kivinen said it was able to soften the blow by implementing retirement arrangements and internal re-organisation.

“The number of jobs lost is clearly smaller than we initially estimated at the start of the negotiations. However for the most part we will be able to achieve the company’s operational reforms and savings targets with this level of reductions,” Kivinen added.

Union: Cuts go too far

Chief shop steward Pirkko Epstein said however that the employee cuts had gone too deep, adding that the company has been using the failure to secure an index increase in the Yle tax as an excuse to retrench workers.

She said that the process could have been conducted with a softer touch, since around 250 workers are due to retire over the next three years.

The co-determination talks affected some 1,000 employees – roughly one-third of the company’s workforce. Yle said it had to resort to the cost-cutting measures since it was forced to give up a planned index increase on the Yle tax which funds it, as part of the government’s overall efforts to reduce spending.

The company said it was facing a 10-million-euro funding shortfall as a result. However employee representatives claim the deficit is closer to four or five million euros.

Yle has also embarked on an extensive internal reform programme which primarily involves a re-organisation of its news operations. It also has plans to develop new kinds of media content and services.

Sources Yle

NOTE: ”Soft touch” my eye, axe hacking time, let the rest work for the private firms that result in the selling off the entire publicly owned franchise. Enough with this statist socialism already.

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