In many countries today, the threat of job losses is real as many organisations and companies struggle to stay afloat as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. ELEOJO IDACHABA takes a look at this downturn.
It’s no longer news that with the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic comes not only with human deaths, but structural adjustments in many forms. Lately, one of such adjustments is in the form of realignment leading to several job losses presently occurring in several sectors of many nations’ economies on a daily basis, with Nigeria inclusive.
Media workers in Australia
For example, there was a report that thousands of journalists and media workers lost their jobs recently in Australia as about 128 newspapers have closed shops. Of this number, it was learnt that more than 100 local and regional newspapers have disappeared entirely or become purely online thereby leading to significant number of job losses. This indication was given by the chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, who thanked the departing employees for their years of service and professionalism to the organisation.
He said, “They have provided News with invaluable years of service. Their passionate commitment to the communities in which they lived and worked and their role in ensuring these are informed and served by trusted local media has been substantial.”
News Corp is, however, yet to specify how many staff each title will have, if any, or how much of local reporting would continue, but it suspended 60 papers in April when coronavirus hit the economy, an indication which seemed unlikely they would ever return to print. The media entertainment outfit said it was a huge loss for communities in regional and sub-urban Australia.
“We are still waiting for clarity from the company on how many editorial staff would be affected by these changes across the News Corp network,” its chief executive, Paul Murphy said.
“We are determined to see proper consultation and fair treatment for any affected staff.
“The closure of so many mastheads represents an immense blow to local communities and coming off the back of hundreds of previous regional closures during this period, it underlines the seriousness of the crisis facing regional and local journalism.
“Covid-19 has impacted the sustainability of community and regional publishing.
“Despite the audiences of News Corp’s digital mastheads growing more than 60% as Australians turned to trusted media sources during the peak of the recent Covid-19 lockdowns, print advertising spending which contributes the majority of our revenues, has accelerated its decline.
“Consequently, to meet these changing trends, we are reshaping News Corp Australia to focus on where consumers and businesses are moving and to strengthen our position as Australia’s leading digital news media company. This would involve employing more digital only journalists and making investments in digital advertising and marketing solutions for our partners.”
In Nigeria too
In Nigeria, investigations by this reporter also revealed that the wind is blowing across many media landscapes as hundreds of media workers, particularly in the private sector, are being disengaged while others have salary cuts in line with the current economic realities. Many of those media outfits like Daily Trust, for instance, began with a slash of certain percentages from the salaries of workers until last week when a number of editorial staff were disengaged.
In a chat with one of the disengaged editorial staff who did not want his name in print because he was yet to collect his disengagement benefits, he said, “Signs that this would happen in the Trust Newspapers has been on for a while even before the advent of coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic merely came to reconfirm the fear. Initially, they slashed 25 per cent out of our salaries from March even when the pandemic just started and that has been the condition until last week when we were asked to leave. They promised to give us one month parting gift, but not yet ready. I don’t know if the parting gift would reflect the old salary structure or the new one being paid since March; that is why I don’t want my name to be mentioned yet until I get the money. Life goes on.”
Unconfirmed report also indicated that the same fate befell The Punch newspapers which allegedly sent some of its staff into the labour market. According to Ayo Olesin, a senior journalist, “It’s another Tsunami at the Punch Newspaper, one of the few successful newspapers in the country as it sends more journalists into the labour market,” he declared on his Facebook page.
He said this is aside the difficult situation being faced by working journalists in many media houses who now either go home with half salaries or being owed several salaries for as much as 12 months. The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), which is the umbrella body for practising journalists, is, however, yet to make its position known on this fresh disengagement of its members which also included broadcast journalists from privately-owned radio and television stations across the country.
Chevron announces job losses
As the world battles the devastating effect of the pandemic, a major industry player in the oil sector, Chevron Corporation, has slated its 6,750 staff for sack in what is currently known as one of the biggest global mass disengagements. The mass sack, according to reports, represents a cut of between 10 to 15 per cent of its workforce worldwide as part of its ongoing restructuring.
The company’s spokesperson, Veronica Flores-Paniagua, said Chevron which had 45,000 employees expects to remove about 10 to 15 per cent of its global staff to match what she called projected activity levels.
Earlier, the oil giant had declared a 30 per cent reduction in its 2020 spending and some voluntary job cuts following the sharp drop in global oil prices and a corresponding drop in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is a difficult decision and we do not take it lightly. The about 4,500 to 6,750 job cuts envisioned are to address current market conditions with varying impact on each business unit and region,” Flores-Paniagua said.
Obasanjo ‘ibrary joins the fray
Although it has been in the form of a rumour for a long while, it became public recently when some workers of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s library located in Abeokuta also sacked a number of its staff in the wake of the pressure resulting from the current Covid-19 pandemic.
In a letter signed by the head of human resources, administration and procurement, Olanike Ogunleye, to affected workers, it stated that the development was due to the overwhelming adverse impacts of coronavirus on the organisation.
According to the letter, the current Covid-19 pandemic has had a toll on all businesses significantly which had resulted in making some difficult business decisions.
A copy of the letter dated May 25 reads in part, “Due to this situation, we regret to inform you that your employment would be put on hold till further notice. You are to hand over all company property in your possession to the human resource department which shall do a confirmation of the exit clearance process before your final entitlements (if any) would be paid.”
How prepared are we?
Investigations by Blueprint Weekend revealed that the over 40 million small scale businesses presently operating in the country are ill-equipped to handle a crisis of the current magnitude, the reason for which every effort has been switched to the survival of the fittest.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated that sectors identified as most volatile to the negative impact of Covid-19 are tourism, leisure, aviation, manufacturing, construction, and the real estate. This is because the restriction of movement order put in place by the government in the wake of the pandemic hampered the ability of workers in those sub-sectors to function and generate their own revenue.
The airlines industry, for example, remains currently grounded as they have made next to nothing in terms of revenue for months, but had continued to incur costs for maintenance of their aircrafts and demurrage at many local and international airports.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an estimated loss of 3.5 million passengers due to restrictions has resulted in over $760 million loss in revenue. It is the almost same situation in the manufacturing sector as many factories and industries were shut down and the labour force demobilised leading to loss of revenue. In many of those industries struggling to survive, a sizeable number of employees are being disengaged.
Govt’s response
Although the government had made it clear at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that it would not disengage its employees in the public service, it’s not the same in the private sector that controls more than 60% of the total work force in the country. However, in a bid to reinvigorate businesses, government instituted a stimulus package in the form of Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill 2020 before the National Assembly. The bill states that, “Any company that does not retrench staff between March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2020 (except for reasons related to a breach of Labour Act) would get a 50% tax refund.”
Industry watchers applauded this move saying it is a positive step that would encourage businesses to retain their employees and save thousands of jobs. It was, however, not specified how government intends to finance the tax refund. What is sacrosanct is that the government is keen on keeping employees from losing their jobs. This is evident in the recent intervention of the apex bank forbidding commercial banks from its recent planned mass sack which was to spread across major banks.
The way forward
In times like this, analysts say employees, especially in the most vulnerable sectors, need to start looking at options for alternative sources of income in the likely event that layoffs continue.
A labour analyst, Odunuga Abari, said, “For employers that would be in distress, the priority should be survival first and all policies and actions taken must be geared towards that; however, should they be forced to lay off staff, all legal bases must be adequately covered to avoid any litigation or additional business risks in the future. Even the reputational damage could be hard to recover from.”
