Broadcaster eyes redeployment for impacted employees
National broadcaster ABC is warning employees of redundancies as it unveiled its most significant restructuring plan since 2017, according to reports.
The plan aims to divide ABC into two divisions, namely news and content, down from the current three, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported.
The major shift will be carried out on July 1, according to ABC managing director David Anderson.
"Change is never easy. Clearly this restructure impacts some of our leaders. Where this occurs, we will seek to redeploy as many affected employees as possible. But we expect there will be some redundancies and consultation with those leaders who are impacted is under way," Anderson said as quoted by the AFR.
The managing director did not disclose how many staff will be made redundant, but he shared that regional journalists will be moved to the new news division, while radio networks will be moved to the content division.
"With 60 additional journalists, we now have approximately 600 content makers in regional Australia, operating from 58 locations outside the state and territory capitals," Anderson said as quoted by The Guardian.
The move to reorganise into two divisions aims to "streamline production process" as ABC seeks to become a "digital-first" firm, according to Anderson. The news division will be led by Justin Stevens, while the content division will be led by Chris Oliver-Taylor.
The reorganisation was announced weeks after ABC employees voted for a new enterprise agreement that pushed for an 11% pay increase over the next three years.
The agreement states that ABC employees will get a four per cent pay rise in the first year, another four per cent in the second year, and three per cent in the third year. They will also be receiving a $1,500 one-off cash payment, according to the report.
The deal averted two one-hour strikes set on March 22, which was supposed to be the first strike at the broadcaster for more than a decade-and-a-half.
