The latest round of redundancies at The Australian brings the number of staff laid off by News Ltd this year to more than 100. Last week the national newspaper has sacked seven of its longest-serving photographers with collective service at the company of more than 150 years. The Alliance has called on the management of The Australian to front staff and explain the latest round of job cuts as required under the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.

"The national newspaper cannot help but be diminished by the loss of this talent and experience," Alliance federal secretary, Christopher Warren, said.  "Those who are left will be carrying a huge extra burden, in some bureaus one photographer will have to try to cover the entire state and fulfil a number of vastly different roles across breaking news, sport, features and magazine work.

"The newspaper's editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, owes it to his hardworking and loyal workforce around the country to address staff to explain how and why these cuts have been necessary and how the newspaper will continue to deliver quality with a diminished photographic desk."

The photographers are: Bob Finlayson and Carlos Furtado in Sydney; Michael Potter and David Crosling in Melbourne; David Sproule and Patrick Hamilton in Brisbane and Andy Tyndall in Perth. Internal reports suggest there is one more redundancy to come, probably in the Press Gallery in Canberra.

The Alliance also understands that the newspaper has laid-off a further part-time four staff including artists and one sub-editor on The Weekend Australian.

Employees at The Australian are due to receive a 3.5 per cent pay rise on July 1 under the current Enterprise Bargaining Agreement - the Alliance demanded that sacked employees be paid out at the higher rate and the company has agreed.

Members at The Australian have expressed "extreme concern" about the continued independence and quality of masthead and said they were disappointed at the treatment of "longstanding employees with unblemished records".

There was also concern that the company has not fulfilled its legal requirement under the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement to notify staff of any changes that may lead to redundancies. The journalists said they wanted to know the company's future plans for further sharing of resources that may lead to more job losses down the track.

A legal guarantee of conditions

Make the move to get off your AWA or ITEA before it's too late. Bargaining agent forms are continuing to come in, and we are getting closer to our target.  The more people who are involved the more likely it is that the company will realise how important it is to people to have their entitlements legally protected. We will only present bargaining forms to management when the majority of people on AWAs at News Ltd have sent their forms to the Alliance. With redundancies starting in earnest at News, don't rely on a promise or current company policy when it comes to your conditions. Your union can only legally represent you if we have your signed bargaining agent form.

Find a copy of the bargaining agent form at the end of this recent News Ltd bulletin.