Guardian boss offers last-ditch Observer concessions ahead of strike
Sky News has obtained a memo sent to Guardian Media Team workers on Monday by Anna Bateson, the corporate’s chief executive, which outlines a revised bundle aimed at placating inflamed journalists as they prepare to rob industrial movement on Wednesday.
In her point to to workers, Ms Bateson acknowledged she and Guardian editor Kath Viner “hear the passionate circumstances being made by colleagues about the proposed sale of the Observer”, and acknowledged that journalists who attain no longer admire to switch to Tortoise Media would possibly well presumably well presumably be equipped a “time-exiguous” voluntary redundancy design.
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She acknowledged that “enhanced redundancy phrases would possibly well presumably well presumably be maintained put up-switch for a period aloof being negotiated”.
Sources acknowledged the Scott Have confidence, The Guardian’s excellent guardian, was as soon as which strategy of protect an on-line assembly on Monday afternoon amid worthy unrest from the corporate’s editorial workers and other stakeholders.
Final week, Dale Vince, the eco-entrepreneur, confirmed that he would possibly well presumably well presumably be drawn to investing in The Observer if the sale to Tortoise Media fell thru.
Sky News printed in October that the Scott Have confidence would continue to enjoy a stake in The Observer if the deal went thru, but on the weekend The Sunday Occasions acknowledged this had been superseded by a commitment being negotiated for the have confidence to turn out to be a shareholder in Tortoise Media itself.
The principle in a series of two-day strikes is which strategy of open on Wednesday, with some department heads who’re union contributors acknowledged to without a doubt feel conflicted over the strike movement.
In her memo on Monday, Ms Bateson wrote: “We recognise that some of us would possibly well presumably well no longer admire to switch to Tortoise Media and we would offer a time exiguous voluntary redundancy design to Observer workers on the same phrases we did over the summer season.
“Our recent enhanced redundancy phrases would possibly well presumably well presumably be maintained put up-switch for a period aloof being negotiated.
“Observer workers who pass to Tortoise Media would moreover hold the chance to note for “interior simplest” open roles on the Guardian for a period aloof being negotiated.
“Freelance contracts would possibly well presumably well presumably be prolonged till the discontinuance of September 2025 and renegotiated at that time.”
She added that those transferring to Tortoise Media “would withhold the same job titles, salaries and advantages, including sabbatical rights, ought to the deal tear forward by process of ‘TUPE’ [Transfer of Undertakings [Protection of Employment]]”.
And she insisted: “Our precedence has repeatedly been to protect the Observer’s 233-One year legacy and kind particular the proposed agreement is as stable as it can presumably well presumably be for workers, readers and the manner forward for liberal journalism.”
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Tortoise, which was as soon as co-founded by the primitive Occasions editor James Harding, has pledged to withhold the newspaper’s focal point on areas such because the humanities and custom, and acknowledged it can presumably well presumably invest £25m in it over a 5-One year period.
On the opposite hand, that pledge has already been tested by the resignation of Jay Rayner, The Observer’s lengthy-serving restaurant critic.
A GMG spokesperson declined to comment additional.