Financial Times staff have voted to support taking industrial action if changes to the newspaper’s pension policy are pushed through.
About 300 staff attended an open meeting to discuss the potential changes to working terms and conditions under the paper’s new Japanese owner Nikkei.
Steve Bird, the National Union of Journalists’ father of chapel at the FT, said that managers have reneged on a promise to provide “fair and equivalent” conditions following the completion of Pearson’s sale of the newspaper.
FT staff from departments including editorial, commercial and IT – as well as members of the NUJ and Unite – have voted to support industrial action if management goes ahead with what journalists have called a “pensions robbery”.
“No member of FT staff should be disadvantaged financially by this takeover,” said Bird. “We hope that Nikkei managers will come to the negotiating table and make good on assurances that they will treat staff fairly as part of the Nikkei ‘family’ and on terms equivalent to those under Pearson.”
Staff claim that two weeks after Nikkei’s takeover of the FT had been announced the word “equivalent” was removed from a human resources online information sheet on the deal.
They claim that documents have shown that management at the FT and Nikkei are looking to save £4m annually by changing pension arrangements that would impact 20% of the workforce.
The NUJ has also complained that Nikkei has not been involved in talks with representatives, instead sending in Deloitte to negotiate on the company’s behalf.
“This shabby treatment of staff is far from the behaviour we’d expect from a FTSE 100 company,” said Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the NUJ. “It is vital that Nikkei now involves itself properly in this consultation process and demonstrates to FT staff that they will be treated fairly and equitably. The main asset Nikkei is buying is the talented and committed team of staff who make the FT such an attractive acquisition – treating them with respect and fairness and not jeopardising their goodwill should be Nikkei’s overriding priority if the sale is to conclude smoothly.”
A spokeswoman for the FT said that Nikkei has purposely not been involved because it was felt that in line with maintaining the newspaper’s independence the discussions should be handled by the publication’s own management.
In addition, the FT says that staff has had “hours of face time” with management in consultation sessions, as well as outside them, to discuss the changes in the pension arrangements.
“The suggestion that the new pension plan has been designed to take £4m from staff on a final salary pension scheme is categorically untrue,” she said. “The changes are about supporting the long-term strength and sustainability of the FT and building a consistent plan for all employees. Any savings will go toward additional contributions to those affected, investment in the business for the benefit of all, and offsetting costs now borne by the FT, which were previously borne by Pearson.”
