Bah! Humbug! No Festive Cheer For Herald Group

Oh dear. It seems like Milne Media really was talking to the spirit of Christmas Future last week when told that the traditional festive party was to be cancelled at the Herald and Times Group.

An email was sent out to employees at the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times last night telling them that - despite staff being in favour of a traditional knees up - this year's festive party has been scrapped.

Much grumbles from staff have been sent Milne Media's way overnight and, while I usually leave the comments section to speak for itself, I thought this was worthy of being singled out from drowningnotwaving:

"A week or so ago, Herald & Times Group MD Tim Blott asked the staff via the intranet if they wanted a party or not. The deal was it would cost £10k to host the party in the courtyard (a f-ing joke in recent years) or £2k to cancel. The poll yielded a result of about 55% in favour of having the party. A clear majority (though I wasn't one of them). Blott cancelled it anyway. To gauge the level of contempt in which he is rightly held by staff, consider this. Consider too the £8.50 Christmas bonus in 2007. The default amateurism and lack of experience across the papers thanks to constant redundancies and pay-offs. Consider that his reaction via staff e-mail to the work-to-rule we begin tomorrow was to warn us we could face not being paid if we don't fulfil our "contracted duties". The man simply has no soul. As an aside: John McGurk, Jaspan, Lucifer himself - anyone but Donald Martin, please. I don't care how high up David Murray's Christmas card list he ranks."

Given that some newspapers have traditionally exposed such Scrooge like behaviour from employers in the past, you have to wonder if Private Eye or similar may like to have a look at the goings on in Glasgow.

The company's reward, of course, was to be a work to rule starting today. 

But because the staff are a kindly lot, they have agreed to suspend the action pending further talks proving that Christmas truly is a time for forgiving.

And having having suggested that the NUJ mount a national campaign over the cuts in Scotland and the UK, it was pleasing to see this piece in Media Guardian warning of a fightback including industrial action and lobbying of Parliaments.

Peace and Goodwill to all men? Fat chance.