NBC To Cut Employees' Pay
CEO for NBCUniversal Jeff Shell sent a long email to the staff that addressed a number of issues.
In talking about the ouster of Andy Lack, Shell wrote, “Partially to best address the first point, yesterday I announced a new structure for our television segments, combining our news networks under Cesar Conde and our television and streaming entertainment platforms under Mark Lazarus. I believe these changes not only put us in a position to become a more efficient company but also will enable us to have a more cohesive content strategy thereby strengthening our competitive position. I want to sincerely thank Andy Lack, who decided to step down as part of this reorganization. Over the past five years, Andy has overseen award-winning breaking news coverage and outstanding political reporting at NBC News, and has helped to supercharge MSNBC into one of the most-watched networks in all of cable. His hard work and many accomplishments have made the company proud.”
But the part that had the most impact on employees was the part about rolling back raises and cutting pay.
Shell writes in the long memo, “We also plan to roll back the most recent salary increases for our exempt employees who have salaries in excess of $100,000. For the vast majority of you, this means reversing the recent merit increase that just went into effect in early March. This rollback will be implemented in early June on a go-forward basis.”
In other words, you know that raise you just got? Well, forget that.
It appears that employees under a contract, like those at NBC News will be addressed in follow up emails. “Because there are nuances based on the terms of your employment and country location, all employees will receive follow-up information as we get closer to June,” Shell says in his email.
Insiders tell FTVLive that the contract employees are encouraged to take the pay cut and are being told that they need to contact the company if they don’t want to.
In other words, you take the pay cut, or you are not being a team player.
Here is Shell’s full email, obtained by FTVLive: