Business News
Edipresse faces crisis
Monday 12. October 2009 - In a media market undergoing fast structural changes, Edipresse Suisse must cut its cost level to ensure its future and is planning to shed about hundred jobs.
The consultations with the staff representatives – which are laid down for such cases by the collective agreements and the law – will begin next week. Edipresse Suisse also proposes creating a Support Fund for cases of hardship.
The deep structural changes in the media are continuing and accelerating due to the economic crisis. In particular, the print media are suffering in 2009 from the swift decrease in advertising revenue.
?By the end of September we have lost 25% of advertising revenue compared with 2008 and no improvement is in sight for the end of the year?, said Serge Reymond, Chief Executive Officer of Edipresse Suisse. ?It is therefore imperative that the company should again cut its costs, and this will necessarily involve redundancies?.
A plan of measures to this end has been prepared and will be implemented in the near future, after consulting the staff representatives. The cumulative impact of the measures planned in the different sectors of the company will lead to the loss of about hundred jobs in total (out of a total Swiss workforce of 1,124 jobs on a full-time equivalent basis).
Pursuant to the numerous collective agreements between Edipresse and its social partners, the company has today invited the staff representatives of the different sectors concerned to embark on the consultation procedures in force in order to examine the planned measures together. The formal decisions will be taken once these consultations are completed. For those who will be affected by the forthcoming restructuring, accompanying measures will be envisaged, together with a social plan. Furthermore, Edipresse Suisse proposes to set up a Support Fund for cases of hardship. It will be endowed with financial resources by the company and the modalities for drawing on the fund will be defined in agreement with the social partners.
?Unlike the German-speaking part of Switzerland, which has not had a collective agreement for journalists for a number of years, French-speaking Switzerland and the Edipresse Group have always remained loyal to the principle of collective labour agreements. We even have a special internal agreement for the editorial staffs (AIR) which grants our journalists additional benefits compared with the sector?s collective agreement?, pointed out Serge Reymond. ?These collective agreements all provide for consultation procedures for the special cases of economic crisis or restructuring to be discussed among the social partners; this discussion machinery now has to demonstrate its efficiency and enable us to find pragmatic solutions together?.