In what appears 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.
SaharaReporters 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.
SaharaReporters 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 SaharaReporters.
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.
