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Miller Freeman moved the Engineer and allied titles from Docklands to the West End at less than a week's notice. If your boss tries to pull a fast one, what are your rights to consultation and compensation? Talk before you walk:
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Reporting the war: Debate the issues at May's branch meeting
6.30, 10 MAY BRANCH MEETING
ROOM 2D, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON UNION,
MALET STREET WC1Guest speaker: Seamus Milne of the Guardian The Guardian has proved to be one of the most gung-ho enthusiasts for the war, leaving the Independent almost alone in the mainstream media in its sceptical approach to the competing claims of the combatants. Robert Fisk's reports from Yugoslavia for the Independent have towered over all the other broadsheet reporting.
So what has happened to the Guardian's liberal pretensions? Have all its journalist really become laptop bombardiers and audio-typists for NATO?
Or is there a battle going on in the newsroom to reflect views other than those of the humanitarian warmongers?
Seamus Milne, father of chapel at the Guardian, reports from the front line in Farringdon Road, and addresses the issues raised by war reporting for ethical journalism and workplace union organisation. Come and take part in the debate.
"Both sides lie, that is what governments do during wars. Journalists must be sceptical," said Tim Gopsil, editor of the Journalist, at a meeting of 150 journalists and other media workers in central London on 19 April.
He added: "We must push questions to the limit, must attribute, must seek balance and must organise to raise these issues in editorial meetings."
Speaking at the same meeting, John Pilger said: "We need to challenge editors and production executives. This is the most gross propaganda war in living memory. It is the job of people like [NATO spokesman] Jamie Shea to lie, and our job to expose them, to set the record straight. There is no point in pleading with them to tell the truth."
Another journalist, and author of a historical account of war reporting, The First Casualty, Philip Knightley, said: "We have the illusion of saturation coverage in the press and on TV but no hard facts."
At our April meeting London Magazine Branch passed an emergency motion condemning the uncritical reporting of, and open support for, NATO war aims by the British media.
With opinion polls recording a steady third of the population opposed to the war, the mainstream media are failing to reflect the balance of views in the country.
We have also been treated to the less than edifying attempt by senior members of the government to smear BBC political editor John Simpson for "swallowing Serb propaganda" in his reports from Belgrade.
Alice Mahon is the only MP to have gone to Yugoslavia to see for herself. She took Mirror reporter Jenny Johnson with her. Hearing Mahon recount at a public meeting what she saw Í and heard in the Balkans and reading the Mirror one would have to assume they had visited different continents - or that the Mirror's subs were told to do a total rewrite.
The problem is not just that news editors have have been afflicted by a sudden inability to ask searching questions of official spokespeople, but that they have also developed tunnel vision.
Facts that do not fit comfortably with the editors' view that this is a just and popular war being waged for the official objectives (to punish and reverse ethnic cleansing) - and no other objectives - are simply not published. Although demonstrations in other NATO capitals have been bigger - 70,000 in Rome and 20,000 in Berlin - is it editorially sound for the BBC to ignore one of 5,000 in London?
And what are we to make of the naval mutiny in Pireus when a Greek warship was ordered to join NATO exercises? Ratings said they would not take any part in the war against Yugoslavia - even though British editors assume that everyone is behind the great crusade.
The NUJ has condemned the bombing of Serbian TV stations and transmitters as "barbarous". At least 10 media workers - including a make-up artist who was presumably busy tapping out poisonous propaganda when the bombs struck - have been killed in breach of a promise made by NATO officials to the International Federation of Journalists that TV stations would not be targeted.
IFJ general Secretary Aiden White said: "Military action against media will identify journalists, media workers and media organisations as legitimate targets in any future conflict."
Tony Benn MP, addressing around 1,000 demonstrators outside BBC Broadcasting House on 24 April said: "If NATO can destroy TV stations and transmitters because they put out propaganda that it disapproves of, then we must be standing next to a legitimate military target too."
Veran Matic, editor-in-chief of independent radio station B92 - taken over by the state after the bombing started - said: "The free media in Serbia has for years opposed nationalism, hatred and war. I call upon president Clinton to put a stop to NATO's attack."
Matic predicted in December 1998 that "bombing would simply mobilise more support for Milosovic and fan the flames of the ultranationalism."
Dragan, a Serb from Novi Sad in northern Serbia, said after his city was bombed: "My dad was a partisan in the Second World War. He is no supporter of Milosovic. He says: 'Before the bombing we had a strong opposition, but now they've made 11 million Milosovics.'"
Isn't it time that our press reflected just a little of that common-sense view that bombing civilians doesn't weaken their leaders' resolve - it simply keeps those leaders in power?
Pete Woodward, Bectu steward, ITN*
"ITN had a camera crew at the anti-war march in London. But the late evening news transmitted grainy footage of the demonstration they had taken off Serbian TV with the clear message that these demonstrators are giving succour to the enemy. That is not balanced reporting, it is vicious propaganda."
Zoran Zivkovic, anti-Milosovic mayor of Nis, after the city was bombed
"The people who live here are the same people who voted for democracy in 1996, the same people who protested for 100 days after the authorities tried to deny them victory in the elections."
Alex Thompson, Channel 4 News
"Reports from Belgrade are always prefaced with a health warning about the reliability of the contents. It is rare to hear a report from NATO or the MoD prefaced with 'None of the claims of the briefers can be independently verified.'"
John Pilger*
"The Gulf war was the most reported war in history, but almost all of them missed the real story: the slaughter of 200,000 Iraqis and the 830,000 children - verified by UNICEF - who have died since through sanctions."
Sophie Mason, Bectu steward, on a humanitarian NATO*
"After 150 years of great power intervention in the Balkans is it wise to put your faith in the same people who led the carve up that created Yugoslavia, and then pushed it under again."
Tony Blair MP - in the interest of balance
"We will redouble and intensify our campaign. We will carry on pounding day after day"
*Speaking at the Freedom Forum, 19 April
An administrator has finally been appointed at West Africa Publishing Ltd, which went into receivership on 24 March.
However, staff have detected little evidence of efforts by the administrator to sell the company as a going concern or even the title, its subscription list and photo library to cover VAT and National Insurance debts - and unpaid wages.
The NUJ has made hardship funds available to our nine members there from the remainder of the £30,000 that the union's National Executive put aside for prosecuting the year-long dispute at West Africa.
Unpaid wages (back pay, holiday pay, redundancy compensation and payment in lieu of notice) will not be paid by the administrator.
Staff have applied to the government-run compensation fund for their money, but are in considerable financial distress at the moment.
We hope that members of the branch may be able to offer freelance shifts to the West Africa staff.
The last branch meeting decided to circulate the members' CVs, and the next Report will have a full list of their expertise and contact details.
In the meantime, some readers may be able to offer work to:
Dave Womersley, production editor, IT support engineer and writer;
Experienced in PageMaker 4.0 on PC and Novell network.
Contact 0171 791 2907;
dave-womersley@claramail.com
Tayo Fatunla, designer, illustrator and cartoonist (work published internationally).
Contact 0181 311 2602; mobile 0802 970511; tayo.fatunla@btinternet.com
Please also call West Africa father of chapel Themon Djaksam for details of other members on 0181 671 8439.
At the AGM in April a new branch committee was voted in:
Chair Alan Gibson
Vice-chair Neil Darby
Secretary Maggie Coates
[Maggie has not yet been voted in, but has agreed to stand for election at the May meeting]
Treasurer Dave Blackman
Report editor Gordon Jamieson
Membership sec. Ken Mulkearn
There are still vacancies for a number of posts on the branch committee, all of which are open to job-sharing. If you would like to get more involved in the running of the branch, please call the chair, Alan Gibson, on 0171 254 5033.
The branch meeting also discussed the implications for trade unionists of the forthcoming European elections and debated a motion to place a May Day greeting in Socialist Worker. The motion was defeated.
What do you do if your boss announces you can stop work an hour early to pack so that the new Skopje newsroom can be up and running by 9am tomorrow?
Employers have an obligation to consult their staff's representatives in advance when they propose to move a workplace. The notice period must be in line with that in the staff's contracts: typically at least a month.
Whether these are union reps or elected by some other means, the boss must talk to them about ameliorating the effects of the move. The reps are entitled to raise the issue of compensation for staff according to individual circumstances.
There is no absolute right to compensation for having to move. The test is whether it is reasonable. You can argue that someone is being constructively dismissed only if there are real barriers to them travelling to the new office or moving house - such as having a serious medical condition, having children in a special school or caring for a relative.
But pushing for more flexible working hours and extra pay for extra travel costs for six months is perfectly reasonable. Better still, get these consolidated with the next pay award.