Nine staff move motion of no confidence in chief executive Mike Sneesby, board after news of sweeping job cuts

Staff at media company Nine Publishing have voted no confidence in chief executive Mike Sneesby and the board following news of large-scale job cuts expected to affect the employment of up to 200 workers.

Staff at The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, WAtoday and the Brisbane Times accepted the offer on Friday, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance said in a statement.

“This proposal was accepted due to a lack of progress in the ongoing negotiations for an enterprise bargaining agreement and due to the job cuts that have been announced,” the statement said.

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“We consider the announcement of job cuts during the negotiations to be particularly bad and we doubt whether the unionized part of the workforce at Nine was particularly targeted.”

Employees said they were furious that hundreds of jobs would be cut, including 70 to 90 in publishing.

“We note the recent misconduct and cultural issues in other parts of the company that have been widely reported, and the role that independent reporting of the publishing department has played in maintaining the reputation of the company’s news department,” the statement said.

“We are demanding an explanation from the company as to why the publishing division appears to have been disproportionately targeted for job losses, given the masthead’s recent strong financial performance at a particularly difficult time for all print publications and the fact that Meta’s money was spent throughout the company, not just in the headline ads.

“We express our concern that senior editors appear to have been kept in the dark about planned job cuts until the last minute, even though the end of Meta’s funding has been known for months.”

Sneesby previously told employees the company was reviewing key parts of the business to identify ways to continue cutting costs.

“Out of our national team of almost 5,000 people, around 200 jobs are expected to be affected at Nine, including some vacant and casual positions that have not been filled,” Sneesby said.

“Where possible, we will seek opportunities to redeploy the affected members of our team and support them throughout the process.”

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