Ibe Pascal Arogorn
In a protest against the
management of Daily Trust Newspaper,
Weekend Editor, Lawal Danjuma, Sokoto
Bureau Chief, Rakiya Muhammad, and many
reporters of the media organisation have resigned.
Crimefacts gathered that the newspaper
had in June introduced a policy of converting
all editorial staff to pay-as-you-publish basis.
By this policy, all reporters who were hitherto
on permanent and freelance basis have no
fixed salary, allowance or any other periodic
benefits but would be paid N1,500 per
published story.
Some operations staff were also affected.
It was also gathered that while this policy
was being implemented, the company also
sacked a reasonable number of staff.
“Basically, the newspaper decided to casualise
labour by paying reporters only for stories they
write. That means reporters are now easily
expendable. They can only be paid based on
their stories published.
“Only Bureau Chiefs, title editors, and some
few line editors were exempted. As a result of
this policy, some staff have started tendering
resignation,” a reporter with the newspaper told Crimefacts .
The reporter disclosed that the management of
the newspaper asked all affected staff to sign
an oath of secrecy when the news of the
unusual casualisation of labour got out in the open.
When contacted, a senior management staff of
the organisation, who asked not to be named,
confirmed the development, however, adding
that the board may reverse the decision
following the backlash that has greeted the
move already.
