Global Can’t Afford Vacation Pay
Former employees of Canwest Global Communications will not be receiving their vacation pay. The news broke today when a source at Global TV Winnipeg told ChrisD.ca the company doesn’t have sufficient funds under the creditor protection agreement.
Global apparently made several phone calls to former employees to let them know the bad news.
One former employee is owed $3,500, which includes banked time. Past staffers say they are filing claims with the creditor, but the union says they may not receive all the money that is owed.
On October 6, Canwest went into bankruptcy protection to stave off creditors, which are owed approximately $4 billion. The union representing employees is calling for pension and severance protection.
But if you thought Global wasn’t in a position to hire new talent, you’d be wrong. We’re hearing the station is hiring a new writer/producer to replace Lorraine Nickel, who moved into Meera Bahadoosingh‘s position when she left for Shaw TV.
With the amount of staff leaving the broadcaster to save their own butts, what the heck was Craig Larkins thinking when he decided to come back?
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October 13th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
haha wow. what are the legalities of that?
October 13th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
LAWSUIT!
October 13th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
If this includes banked time & we’ll never get paid out for hours banked – that means Meera & I & whoever else left recently were working for free at times???
October 13th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Although, I shouldn’t complain – I hear one laid-off employee at Global Kelowna in his 50′s just lost $80,000 in severance. Not sure if this is for certain.
Anonymous Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Hey Andrea, Global is still milking your talent all they can. Just saw a promo you taped earlier for the “What’s On” segment. They should be paying you royalties for that. Oh, right, they’re broke.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
You reading this Trina, Nicole, Lindsay and all the other beautiful ladies of Global? Get out before the roof collapses!! I doubt any of you want a lost pension!
October 13th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
This news didn’t break today Chris. It’s a week old. Try reading a paper.
BTW – How noble of Bomber Fan to want the “beautiful ladies of Global” to protect themselves. I guess the male employees can go down in flames for all he cares
Chris D dot ca Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
There were fears last week that vacation pay might not be paid, but today it was confirmed and staff were notified.
Troy Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Maybe Andrea was notified today, but Lenny was “sincerely regretting the impact” on employees last week.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Is Trina Maus single?
Trina Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
yes!
October 13th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Always pay your people first. Why I have to hire help for projects, as soon as their involvement is completed, they are paid. I might have to wait weeks (or months) for the client to pay up, but at least I’m not burning relations with my peers.
Those left at Global will be asked to have some strong faith that by hanging in, all will be made right.
Shaw is a good place to work, great job security.
derek Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 9:57 am
That’s highly ignorant to say. No media outlet has “great job security.” Ask anyone at Shaw TV if they truly feel their job is safe, when even they have had a lot taken away in recent years. From what I hear, even they have gone through serious adjustments due to the economy. They’re a cable/internet/phone company first and foremost. If anyone at Shaw TV feels they have great job security, that’s crazy. The local TV station will be the first sector to suffer from cutbacks if and when Shaw Cablesystems ever starts to bleed. When they hired Meera B, they were only filling an opening created when someone else left. Don’t go reading into it as if jobs are being created there.
This sort of thing has happened at CTV, CBC, Global, CKX, and City TV – not to mention radio. I’d hate to be one of those CreComm students, seeing a bleak future in working for the local media.
WpgCameraMan Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Not since the summer of 2001 has there been a ‘house cleaning’ for local Shaw broadcasting. 8 years and no layoffs. At least 5 new positions have been created since that time.
Where other stations have been cutting back every chance they can.
If you keep your career goals modest and enjoy the light content they produce, Shaw is the brass ring for TV jobs.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
This news is incredibly hard to take. We all thought we might be losing this pay, but when you actually find out that you will be, it takes another toll. I’m hoping the company restructures enough to keep the Winnipeg people employed, who are all very hard working and deserve to be kept on the payroll.
I’m incredibly sympathetic for the Global Kelowna branch, as everyone there is now scrambling to find work elsewhere.
It’s a tough industry to be in right now.
derek Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Kids, the lesson for today is: avoid a career in the media.
These companies have never been structured well to begin with. That’s why there’s such a lack of surprise when major newspapers in the States go under, and why the Free Press is essentially eliminating their Sunday edition.
This is only the beginning of the storm, folks. Global is only delivering the first blow. Many more to come, and probably felt by all, regardless of where you work.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Yeah cause Shaw charges an arm and a leg for crap
October 14th, 2009 at 7:54 am
is Michael Moore on his way to Portage Ave for his next movie?
So happy you got out Andrea and Meera
October 14th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
A quck clarification. Meera was not hired to replace someone who left Shaw, but someone who promoted internally. We’ve never had an on-air person leave, we have only expanded.
WpgCameraMan Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
See? Job creation! That IS a feel-good story.
Isaac Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Who says Shaw can’t be the next Global? The camera guys I see around always say that people think they’ll be out of business because of the CRTC.
Good for Global people who find work elsewhere. But Shaw seems like most of the on-air people are pulled off the street, and people probably aren’t leaving because they’re not what the big channels are looking for. Some don’t seem to even have any training. I remember watching Channel 11 and seeing an awful NFL talk show with some hacks who couldn’t stop laughing. At what? Nobody knows. I thought they stopped doing cable access, but I heard the show is still going.
It’s shocking that Global employees are still continuing to work and haven’t quit yet. Watching Larkins come back is like seeing people trying to climb aboard the Titanic as it was sinking. Wasn’t he at CTV?? That’s the story I want to hear about.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
This update is old news. I saw this last week…
TORONTO – Canwest Global Communications Corp. (TSX:CGS) employee Patrick Vanderburg is working for a company that he believes will owe him $95,000 in severance and vacation pay when he’s laid off later this year.
But he fears he won’t see a cent of it because parts of the media conglomerate – including his division – filed for creditor protection earlier this week, essentially locking up all future severance payments to its employees, including Vanderburg who loses his job in December.
“My wife works part-time and I’ve got four kids, so you know, Merry Christmas,” said the 45-year-old program co-ordinator of CHBC-TV station in Kelowna, B.C. in a phone interview on Wednesday.
The whole story is at: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2009/10/07/11336996-cp.html
October 14th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
What a gutless company