There are hundreds of newspapers in India and scores in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but not many of them pay salaries to their staff on time.
Most of the newspapers had been giving salaries on 7th of every month and in some, the salary date extends up to 15th of the month. Some others do not have any specific date for salary payment to the staff.
However, Eenadu had been maintaining an excellent human resources policy, irrespective of its dictatorial management and editorial policies.
Right from the day of its inception, Eenadu group had been paying salaries to its employees on the last working day of the month. This has been the practice for the last 45 years.
But now, for the first time, Eenadu management has defaulted on the payment of salaries on the last working day of the month, thanks to the Coronavirus effect that has crippled the media houses at large.
The management has apparently conveyed to the staff that it would be able to pay the salary for the month of April only after May 10. And there is going to be a salary cut for the employees across the board.
What is worse, the Eenadu management is learnt to have decided to cut down the staff strength to bring down the overhead costs.
It is likely to sack page-making staff in all the district editions and sub-editors have been asked to learnt page-making within a week, lest they, too, would be sacked.
The management has also decided to do away with zonal editions. Right now, the tabloid pull-outs are not being published. If at all tabloids are restarted, they will have a maximum of eight or 12 pages. And they have to be made by the sub-editors themselves.
What a fall!
