B&T | 7 September 2022
By Mary Madigan
There have been rumblings for a while now that Nine journalists are not impressed with their pay packages, but now their gripes are all over Twitter with #FairShareNine.
Journalists aren’t just taking to Twitter, they are also taking a stand in their offices. Tons of Nine journalists walked into work today wearing their union’s MEAA t-shirts to advocate for a fairer agreement.
The current offer presented to employees by Nine includes a 3.5 per cent increase in graded rates and a 3 per cent increase to the discretionary ‘merit pool’ for high-income earners.
These increases would also be in addition to the 0.5 increase in superannuation from 1 July 2022 and the $1750 recognition bonus paid to employees in August 2022.
It’s also worth noting that the 3.5 per cent increase as proposed by Nine is significantly above the two per cent increase under the News Corp EBA and the 2.5 per cent increase under the Guardian Australia EBA (both negotiated by MEAA.
Still, it is true that Nine’s earnings are up above 50 per cent, and according to reports, journalists aren’t feeling like they are getting a big enough slice of the pie.
Bianca Hall, a senior writer at The Age, took to Twitter to talk about pay. She wrote: “Journalists, photographers, producers and tech teams agreed to a wage freeze in 2020 to protect jobs during pandemic uncertainty, and because we love our work and audiences. Now, with Nine posting a 53 per cent profit, we’re calling for a #FairShareNine.”
Twitter is now filled with Nine Journalists wearing their union’s MEAA t-shirts and calling for more pay. They are asking why Nine’s record profits aren’t filtering down to the teams making the content.
This means that some of Nine’s best writers are now out on Twitter calling out Nine, from Sean Kelly to Wilson da Silva.
It will be interesting to how this all pans out.