To: All Employees
From: Cheryl Dell
Subject: Workforce and Wage Reductions
Date: March 9, 2009
Last week, we told you that we were still developing our expense reduction plans and would finalize and communicate them to you as soon as possible.
Today, I want to share with you what those plans mean for The Sacramento Bee. We are announcing plans to reduce our workforce by 128 positions, or about 11% of all employees. These are difficult decisions, especially when it means saying goodbye to so many of our friends and colleagues. But we must make these additional cuts to ensure the viability of our newspaper and to adjust to these new competitive and economic realities.
Reductions will occur in virtually all areas of the operation. Employees affected are being notified and provided with information about the transition. We appreciate all that they have done for The Sacramento Bee and will do everything we can to make their transition as smooth as possible.
In addition, we are implementing wage reductions for all employees whose compensation exceeds $25,000 annually. Every employee will receive a letter detailing the impact of the wage reduction on their pay and will have the opportunity to ask questions. These wage reductions will be effective April 13, 2009.
There have been many questions about a one-week work furlough. We are not planning furloughs for the first half of the year. However, we may revisit that option later in the year if financial conditions do not improve. We think it’s important you know it’s a possibility, and details will be provided if and when a decision has been made.
As promised, we’ve looked at many other initiatives to try to keep employee reductions to a minimum. We will be implementing many of these and you’ll learn more about those in the upcoming weeks. We expect many of these changes to reduce workload as well as expenses.
Again, I want to apologize for all of the disruption that you have experienced over the last several weeks. This is a very difficult time for all of us, and it will continue to be difficult as we all adapt to a new way of doing business. We can only respectfully ask, as we have in the past, that you keep your focus and continue to work hard to help our newspaper succeed.
Please contact Human Resources at (916) 321-1630 if you have any questions about the severance program or wage reductions. Thanks.
.
7 comments:
It looks like all of the papers are putting out identical form letters.
Now if they wish to join the internet age, they could have just posted one copy here on McClatchy Watch where the memo would have a better chance of being read by their employees anyway.
10:37 that one cracked me up!
That's a lot of working people. Just think how those folks feel today when they get the news. My heartfelt condolences to those on the layoff lists. And to think this company was once a great place to work...
How does anyone find out who is getting laid off if you are not part of the company? Will there be any mention of this anywhere?
Even the Biz Journal seems to be
low key about the whole thing.
Maybe some of the unfortunates will post their names. Being known would seem a wise move to being hired someplace else. Nobody here is going to trash anybody who gets laidoff today. At least they better not!
RE: 10:52
Why not?
There you go Modesto Guild. Here is a sign of the future. Now lets see how you vote you can either go out with a blaze of glory with your head high or go out with your head down in the future with nothing. We will be watching.
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