Because there already seems to be confusion about the company's buyout offer, Mr. Sunbeam will offer a few details supplied by top newsroom managers:
1) Every full-time staff member who is eligible to take the buyout is supposed to receive a packet on Tuesday, July 29, that provides individualized payout information. Your supervisor is supposed to pick this up from Human Resources and deliver it to you.
2) The offer is 1.5 weeks of pay for each year of service up to 15 years. Anyone who has more than 15 years of service is eligible for an additional 2.5 weeks of pay per year. No one, regardless of length of service, can receive more than a total of 40 weeks of pay. In 2006, the maximum was 52 weeks of pay. If my rudimentary math skills hold, this means no staff member with more than 22 years of service can receive additional pay for their extra years. Non-contiguous years of service - unlike in 2006 - will not factor in your payout. No one eiligible for the buyout can receive less than two weeks of severance pay.
3) The medical benefits (to pay for COBRA insurance) offer is a maximum of six months. The maximum offer in 2006 was one year.
4) The buyout amount and the medical benefits for each staff member will be paid in a lump sum - minus 25 percent wittheld for income taxes.
5) The buyout period runs from August 11 through August 20. During this period, one can opt in or rescind a request. There is no additional time to rescind. The company will decide which buyout requests are accepted. The plan is to complete that process by August 25. Most of those who take the buyout will stay on the job until Sept. 12. Some people may be asked to stay longer because of the particular job they perform.
6) Jim Moroney stated in his email on Monday that the goal is to reduce the newsroom staff of the DMN (excluding Quick, Al Dia and Dallasnews.com) to 350. At present, the DMN newsroom staff numbers approximately 390. That translates into 40 jobs that need to be cut to avoid possible layoffs. Staff members who have announced prior to Monday that they are leaving the paper have already been counted in the 390.
If I have misstated or miscalculated any of this, I'm sure someone will correct me.
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4 comments:
I guess I don't see how only 40 from the DMN newsroom will get them to the number.
Keep in mind that 40 in the DMN newsroom is only part of the overall reduction. Al Dia and Quick, for example, will also have reductions. Then there is the rest of the paper - Advertising, Circulation etc. Since we don't know the total number they are looking for, it's hard to know whether this can work without deeper cuts.
Mr. Sunbeam
One more thing...
The buyout numbers do not have to be proportional across the company. Top editors acknowledge that the newsroom has already lost about 30 staff members through attrition this year. It could be that fact is being taken into account when deciding where further job cuts are needed.
Ah. Thanks, and thanks for the blog.
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