Nearly 1,300 New York Times workers have vowed never to work at the office again and to do all of their business from home.
The staff members have said they won’t come back to the workplace after the New York Times began requiring them to work a minimum of three days this week.
It happens at a time when New York Times employees, who are covered by the Union News Guild of New York, are pleading with management to raise their pay.
According to the New York Post, 1,316 Times writers, photographers, and editors signed a commitment on Monday promising never to go back to work.
People are furious, according to New York Times editor Tom Coffey, who has been there for 25 years.
Coffey said that since management made the choice to compel staff back into the office at a time of high inflation, the employees are now having to pay more for clothes, meals, and petrol. Additionally, no pay raises are granted to the workforce in order to offset these increased expenditures.
A little more than 1,300 New York Times workers have promised never to work in an office again and to work from home instead.
Journalist at the New York Times Haley Willis tweeted on Monday, “The @nytimes is providing branded lunch boxes to staff this week as a welcome-back benefit.”
With backing from the @WirecutterUnion, I am working from home this week along with 1,300 of my @NYTimesGuild and @NYTGuildTech colleagues.
The lunch boxes sent to New York Times employees, however, were ’empty,’ a source informed the New York Post. And the lunch box lacked handles, they continued.
There is no specific number of days that workers must spend in the office each week, according to a New York Times representative.
We continue to feel that a hybrid work environment best serves the New York Times at this time, they said.
It’s not always necessary to return to work three days each week, Coffey told the Post. However, they ‘expect’ you to return to the workplace three days each week.
The New York Times’ bargaining committee has proposed a 4% salary increase for employees; however, the News Guild union is asking for an 8% pay increase, a 5.25 % cost-of-living boost, and a permanent option to work from home.
The most recent pay raise for New York Times staff members occurred just before the outbreak in March 2020.
Coffey said that the company’s negotiators were “no-walking” rather than “slow-walking” the pay talks.
People are becoming more and more irritated with the discussions, according to another insider.
A Times representative told The Post, “We appreciate the right of our Guild colleagues to speak out.” We’re actively negotiating with the NYT NewsGuild to come to a collective bargaining agreement that fairly compensates our writers for their contributions to The Times’ success, is fiscally reasonable given the company’s continued expansion, and keeps the competitive environment in mind.
“We offered a salary proposal to the NewsGuild that would provide contractual raises of 10% during the last 2.5 years of the new contract.” That is a lot more than was agreed to in more recent Times Guild contracts. We anticipate moving ahead with reaching a deal.
As a result of the epidemic, several economic sectors are now struggling with flexible working rules.
The Bank of America said last week that it will reveal its strategy for flexible hybrid working over the coming six to eight weeks.
As they compete to get workers back to the office, nations throughout the world are introducing additional incentives, such as free breakfasts.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, hybrid working rules were implemented across the sector, although according to data seen by Reuters and executives in the banking sector interviewed, attendance levels internationally fell short of expectations.
Additionally, with prices for things like gasoline and food growing quickly, employees who are used to deducting their commute costs have more motivation to avoid going to work, posing a challenge to employers to promote office work more effectively.
According to Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, “employers have done a fair bit to make the workplace more appealing and functional,” noting a variety of benefits such free lunches and enhancing social area with ping pong tables.
Employees are not adhering to hybrid working arrangements, according to a worldwide study of over 80,000 workers performed by the consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA).
According to AWA, attendance is correspondingly 1.1 days, 1.6 days, and 2.1 days in organisations with rules mandating two, two or three, or three days in the workplace.
People attempted entering the office after the limits were loosened after we were let out of lockdown. And when they arrived, all they were doing was participating in Zoom calls, according to AWA managing director Andrew Mawson.
People have become used to a lifestyle and pricing structure that fits them, he said, which is why they are not entering workplaces.
According to Kelly Beaver, CEO for UK and Ireland of the polling company Ipsos, which is giving up its two days a week hybrid policy in favour of a more flexible approach, senior managers might be among the most stubborn about staying home.
Some of them, we’ve discovered, are less amenable to minor workplace irritations, or they consider the strain of travelling to an office to be superfluous. They are, however, losing out on networking, she said.