Business group highlights poor pay at Newsquest

THE Real Business organisation has used Newsquest as an example of companies hit by industrial unrest because they pay poor wages.

Dominic Monkhouse says: “Strikes and unrest are fuelling our national psyche of late, which spells trouble for employers. Poor pay is the justification for bin men leaving rubbish on the streets, Heinz workers canning it for the day and Newsquest Media Group failing to make the news.”

Monkhouse goes on to say: “There are two schools of thought as to how to analyse striking staff. The first is that if your employees are willing to strike, they are not worth keeping. The second is to ask yourself if your duty as an employer is falling short – would you really want to work for you?”

Well, when Newsquest took over the group it must have thought its employees were worth keeping – or we’d have been sacked years ago. So that brings us directly to the second point: would Paul Davidson work for himself if it meant a four-year pay freeze, a torpedoed pension scheme and the continuous threat of redundancy?

The answer must be a resounding NO because he’s defrosted his personal pay freeze with a massive 21.5 per cent rise and filled his pension pot with a golden shovel. All he’s got to worry about is redundancy. But when Gannett kicks him out, he won’t be queuing at the job centre with the rest of us.

Monkhouse has “five pearls of accumulated wisdom” for company bosses to ensure their employees stay off the picket lines. Because wisdom appears to be in short supply in certain quarters, anyone interested in reading more should CLICK HERE.