Bauer Media given all clear to acquire Seven West Media’s Pacific Magazines

Some of Pacific’s best, most loyal and most productive employees now redundant during the biggest economic and social crisis since the Depression – after having their redundancy entitlements stripped to the bone just days before the sale was first reported in the press. A greedy cash saving move that was clearly made in anticipation of this sale, despite what staff were explicitly told at the time. To the people responsible for that move, please know it will never be forgotten or forgiven. The months ahead will be interesting for all involved.

Yes, it is a sad day for a lot of employees of Pacific, including a little company called Impact Merchandising who is owned by Pacific and did merchandising for the business – around 140 employees will be made redundant next week. Thanks Seven West and Bauer, great timing !!

yeah but think of the seven employees (and even potentially Bauer) that’s jobs are potentially saved and a business that can now keep the lights for longer through this period with this $40million.

I wouldnt say greedy at all, i’d say it was necessary for 2 businesses to survive,

Stripping employees’ redundancy packages was necessary for Seven to keep the lights on? People are now facing not being able to pay their mortgages after Pacific pulled a fast one with this redundancy package move. Staff were told there were no plans for redundancies when the changes were made and just two days later the sale was in The Australian. Wealthy, insulated people will do well out of the sale. Ordinary people have been crushed under foot. People could end up on the street. At least Seven will have the millions now to keep producing high quality winners like Pooch Perfect. That will keep all the staff in work for sure…..

Hi Angel of Pain,
Seven West Media are currently trying to do the same with the printing and publishing employees at West Australian Newspapers, looking to strip all redundancy agreements, long service leave and other conditions back to NES levels, they keep telling us these need to be done for the business to survive etc.
But it always seems to be the workers on the shop floor and no mention of cuts to senior management.
They used to value their employees, that’s why there is many people with 20+ years service at the newspaper printing plant but those days are long gone.

Regarding Impact, most of the employees for this company owned by Seven West and who Bauer did not want as part of their deal as they have gone to an opposition merchandising company are casuals. Bauer were one of their clients up until a month ago but took their business elsewhere. The Impact team worked every Monday and Thursday to make sure the mags were put on show in the retail outlets nationally, most will take away a separation certificate – no redundancy as they are not entitled and in the current client have no chance of finding another job for probably the next 6 months. Good luck Bauer, what goes around comes around !

Pacific Magazines staff were constantly assured through the EBA negotiations that the stripping of redundancy entitlements was just an accounting tidy-up.
Nobody was targeted for redundancy.
They said.

Two days after the EBA was approved, the sale was announced.
Who would have thought?

Do not be fooled. They do not care about you. They will throw you on to the fire in the blink of an eye.

Does anyone really think this is going to go ahead now? Today is very different to December.

Oh it’s going ahead.

The print industry suffers because television is more costly to produce and the salaries are so high for presenters and producers, They should be cut, however their ego’s would be shot. Maybe after this change over Bauer may come out laughing with a new look and opportunities for new editors, contributors, journalists and photographers. They may have some BIG surprises up their sleeve. Wait and see?

Is there more information on how much redundancies have been reduced?

Disgusting

Disgusting? Try the word evil.