The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins Australia’s Media Alliance in calling on Fairfax Media to fairly consult its journalists in an effort to avoid axing hundreds of jobs and outsourcing sub-editing at its leading metropolitan newspapers.

Fairfax announced plans on May 3 to outsource the jobs of 90 sub-editors working on news, business and sports content at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne, and The Canberra Times, and an additional 200 jobs in pre-press, production and advertising.

The proposal to outsource jobs to Pagemasters, a subsidiary of Australian Associated Press (AAP), extends a long series of mass job-shedding at Fairfax over six years, according to Alliance Federal Secretary Christopher Warren.

Members of the Alliance, an IFJ affiliate, have instructed their union to take the issue to Australia’s industrial mediator, Fair Work Australia.

Warren, a member of the IFJ Asia-Pacific Steering Committee and IFJ Executive Committee, said, “Fairfax management need to demonstrate that they are willing to deal in good faith with their journalists who want no more than to investigate alternative strategies to the one proposed this week.”

But while Fairfax management had agreed to staff representatives joining a working party to examine the company’s proposal and look at options other than outsourcing, Fairfax Media boss Greg Hywood is reported as saying the company remains committed to outsourcing sub-editing.

“Continuous resort to job-shedding and outsourcing fuels a vicious spiral in which the fair and decent working conditions that support quality journalism are eroded,” Warren said.

“At a time when Fairfax is looking to invest in the future of quality journalism and the development of market-leading cross-platform news content, taking the specialised skills and expertise of sub-editors out of local newsrooms is grossly misguided.”

The IFJ further joins the Alliance in calling on Pagemasters also to consult its staff on upgrading employment conditions and its current collective agreement to reflect a looming increased workload.

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +61 2 9333 0919

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

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