'Tough calls in the short term': Times Group announces salary reductions

The Times Group has announced pay cuts for its employees in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Salaries have also been restructured, effectively leaving many employees with less money on a monthly basis.

An internal email to staff described the past month as "unprecedented in terms of the disruption it has caused in our personal and professional lives".

While thanking colleagues for their work during this "challenging time", the email said the company's circulation and supply chain have been impacted, while production and editorial teams work in a "constrained environment" as sales team battle to "garner advertisement revenues".

The new salary measures, according to the email, are:

- Defer the pay-out of variable pay/incentive for 2019-20 to the end of the first quarter of 2020-21 or later, for review, "based on bounceback of the economy and our revenues".

- Defer increment decision, for review, "based on our business performance" at the end of quarter two of 2020-21.

- Salary reduction of five percent of TTR for all employees with a salary above Rs 10 lakh per annum. The reduction is 10 percent for employees earning over Rs 100 lakh per annum. The reduction is effective from April 1.

- Move 10 percent of TTR of all employees with a salary above Rs 6.5 lakh per annum to "special performance incentive pool" with effect from April 1. The payment of this "special performance incentive" will be linked to the achievement of a target.

It should be noted that it’s a rare employee, across media houses, that gets the entire variable component of their pay. Most employees only ever get some part of it.

The email added: "Monetary loss is painful, but this sacrifice by each one of us, and your continued support, which the collective organisation counts on, would ensure we emerge strong and victorious from the current crisis... cause this too shall pass."

Last week, Hindustan Times joined the growing list of media houses cutting salaries of their employees, while others have resorted to lay-offs.