TORONTO – Radio and TV broadcaster and content creator Corus Entertainment announced a number of new cost-cutting measures to its employees last Friday during an electronic conference call.
In a nutshell, while there will be no layoffs right now, most full-time employees will be forced to take some unpaid days off this year and next (or work those days sans salary, if they choose) and the company has suspended its portion of paying into the employees pension plan from June 1 to August 31 this year.
The plan will save the company several million dollars.
About 1,000 of the company’s full time employees will have to take two unpaid days off this fiscal year (ending August 31st, 2009) and three in fiscal 2010. The company’s top 300 employees (general managers, vice-presidents and so on) will have to take five days off without pay this year and six in 2010, Corus vice-president, communications Tracy Ewing told Cartt.ca.
That works out to a 1.44% cut in pay for the largest group and a 3.17% cut for the smaller one. The company’s 1,500-plus contract workers and part time employees are not affected by the cuts, nor are Corus’ commissioned sales staff, who have already seen their take-home pay reduced due to the ad market downturn.
This is on top of the 12-member management committee’s decision back in the fall to take a 5% pay cut and defer bonuses – while at the same time attacking general and administrative expenses such as travel.
The company’s goal – after meeting with employee focus groups over the past six weeks – was to cut costs while not laying anyone off and maintaining investments in technology and training like its internal program Corus U, said Ewing.
The company’s quarterly results reflected the difficulties broadcasters face in booking advertising as revenue on the TV ledger dropped 8% and on the radio side, 6%. Subscription revenue rose 12%, however.
But, the company is determined to make its year-end numbers, despite the fact an economic turnaround isn’t yet in sight. “We’re the only company in the industry that provides guidance and we want to reach our guidance this year,” said Ewing.
And despite the deadlines and cutback announcement made Friday, there’s no guarantee things can’t change (and that could be for the better, not just the worse…).
“None of us know how long this downturn is going to last,” said Ewing. “We’re going to keep a temperature check on it though.”
