Editorial staff from Stuff are striking outside the Stuff newsroom in Ponsonby. 30 November 2022 New Zealand Herald photograph by Dean Purcell.
“Journalists have shared heartbreaking stories of how low pay is affecting them,” Hunt said in a statement this morning.
“We are hearing of one having to eat baked beans three nights a week and having to hold off on having children because they cannot afford it.
“Nobody got into journalism to get rich,” he added. “But they expect to be able to cover the basic costs of living. Staff are leaving in huge numbers for better paying jobs.”
Hunt said members were asking for a pay rise which matched cost of living increases. Inflation is running at just over 7 per cent.
As part of negotiations on the collective agreement, Stuff has agreed to introduce a stepped pay scale which allowed members to increase their pay each year, on top of an overall increase to pay rates. It claimed that on average, union members would get pay increases of 7 per cent.
Stuff chief content officer Joanna Norris said today that journalists “were the lifeblood of our business” and it was in the company’s interest to provide fair wages and conditions.
She said the collective negotiations had been in good faith but claims of a staff exodus were “mischievous and incorrect”, noting that turnover was well below the national average.
“As we have consistently indicated to the union, we remain willing to get back to the negotiations.”
The proposed pay increases were in line with what journalists had accepted at other news organisations, Norris said.
Stuff reporters are seeking a pay rise which matches the rising cost of living. Photo / Dean Purcell.
It is understood that TVNZ journalists accepted a minimum offer of around 5.5 per cent in their negotiations this year, with some top-ups taking their overall pay package higher.
Radio NZ’s unionised journalists accepted 7 per cent with additional increases to allowances for reporters who worked on weekends.
But members at Stuff say those comparisons are not valid because their staff, especially junior reporters, were poorly-paid to begin with.
The company’s offer was also not equitable, with some members getting as low as 3.5 per cent and others getting around 8 per cent.
Norris said earlier this week that the strikes would affect less than half of Stuff reporters, but they would still be a challenge for its news operations.
She said the company was facing rising costs and pressures of inflation, including a 30 per cent increase to the cost of newsprint.
It is not yet clear how the company will respond to striking staff. It is understood that a welfare system has been proposed by the union for lower-paid workers in the event that their pay is docked.
Stuff’s stable of mastheads includes its namesake news website, The Dominion Post, The Press, and Sunday Star-Times. It also publishes several regional and community newspapers, including The Manawatu Standard, The Nelson Mail, Taranaki Daily News and Waikato Times.
Journalist strikes in New Zealand are extremely rare. It is believed the last newsroom to go on strike was TVNZ in 2006.
This story previously said it was understood Newshub journalists had secured a pay rise of 8 per cent. Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Newshub, said it is yet to complete its salary review process.
