CMG says Francophones "paying for questionable decisions" made by TFO senior management
TORONTO – Ontario's French public broadcaster, Télévision française de l'Ontario (TFO), is laying off 37 employees and cutting programs due to insufficient provincial funding, says media union Unifor.
TFO provides French-language educational programming for children and adults in Ontario, and is also offered by TV service providers in Quebec, New Brunswick and Manitoba.
The cuts include camera operators, editors, switcher directors, archivists, a purchaser, production assistant, props, and marketing staff represented by Unifor as well as journalists and non-union staff. Unifor said that it received the “grim news” while trying to reach a new collective agreement for TFO’s technical staff.
"These cuts will have a devastating impact on our members and on our francophone viewers who have limited options for local (programming) in their first language," said Alfred St-Aubin, vice-president of local 72M which represents 80 technical staff at TFO.
Unifor said that TFO, an Ontario Crown corporation that relies on funding from Ontario's Ministry of Education, has not received a funding increase in the last two years despite rising operating costs and declining revenues.
"We need the Ontario government to urgently review operational funding for TFO to maintain its critical Canadian cultural, political and social programming," added Unifor’s Ontario regional director Naureen Rivzi.
Update #2: Canadian Media Guild weighs in
The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) levelled some harsh criticism at TFO in a separate statement, noting that the cuts affect 10 CMG positions, including four permanent jobs and five contract positions, and that this is the third round of cuts at the broadcaster in three years.
“CMG is concerned about the direction that Groupe Média TFO management is taking in allocating fewer and fewer operational resources to the internal production of programming to serve Ontario's Francophones”, reads the statement. “These decisions will significantly impact services to the Franco-Ontarian community which is at the heart of the TFO mandate."
CMG also took issue with the reasons cited by Groupe Média TFO management to justify the layoffs, adding that issues such as provincial funding and salary increases should have been taken into account as part of the broadcaster’s budget planning process.
“It was only with much difficulty that CMG members were able to obtain an annual raise of 1.25% in the fall of 2015”, continues the statement. “We also note that, according to public sector salary disclosures for 2017, several members of senior management at TFO were given significant raises. This includes the President and CEO of Groupe Média TFO, Glenn O'Farrell, who received a salary of $331,997 in 2017, a 35.5% raise.
Once again, CMG members and the people of Ontario are paying for questionable decisions made by senior management at Groupe Média TFO.”
CMG also encouraged the Franco-Ontarian community to respond swiftly and “demand that our French-language provincial public broadcaster, which the community fought so hard to obtain, invests in its human resources so that it's better able to serve Francophones across the province and the country.”
Update #3: TFO responds
On Thursday, Groupe Média TFO president and CEO Glenn O'Farrell set the record straight, saying that 19 positions are impacted, including 8 permanent positions and 11 fixed-term contracts, adding that affected employees are encouraged to apply for one of the five new jobs that the company posted. Including the terminations announced Wednesday, he added that the number of positions within the company has actually increased by over 15% since 2015.
“In the face of an environment which continually changes, we, like many others, are confronted to budgetary realities, even despite our new revenue streams”, O'Farrell said in a statement. “This requires that we make course adjustments to better optimize the company and prepare it for the future.”
And as for O'Farrell's 35% raise? The company addressed that in a separate Q&A document.
“The sum was not a raise, but rather an exceptional refund of holidays not taken over the past years”, it reads. “The sum of $332K mentioned in Sunshine's 2017 list is a unique case. No new refund is expected next year. As a reminder, GMTFO's salaries are subject to the Broader Public Sector Executive Compensation Act of 2014.”
