Initial on-air announcement of shutdown 'unplanned,' says company
MediaWorks New Zealand has assured Today FM employees that it will fulfill its contractual obligations following the station's abrupt shutdown last week.
A representative told Stuff that "MediaWorks will be meeting all of its employment contractual obligations" to employees.
A leaked document was recently reported by local news outlets that there will be no redundancy pay for some of Today FM's contracted radio stars.
The New Zealand Herald, citing the document, revealed that the only workers who "appeared to be entitled to redundancy pay" included Tova O'Brien, Duncan Garner, Lloyd Burr, and Rachel Smalley.
Seven individuals among the 30 roles proposed for disestablishment were not eligible for redundancy pay, while 20 more jobs were "under review."
'Unplanned' shutdown
The controversy comes as the Auckland-based news and sport radio network Today FM got abruptly pulled off air on March 30.
The news was first unveiled by O'Brien and Garner hours before the official statement from the radio network.
"Unfortunately, the MediaWorks Board has made the difficult decision to take Today FM off air. This is a hard day for this talented team who put everything into building a new talk platform in Aotearoa," the statement from MediaWorks said.
MediaWorks further told Stuff that the news of Today FM's shutdown was "aired ahead of the planned announcement and meetings with the team."
"This was disappointing and certainly not what was planned," MediaWorks said as quoted by Stuff.
The shutdown was due to the station's revenue not offsetting its operating costs, according to MediaWorks.
"The view of the Board was that Today FM wasn't commercially sustainable and it was in the best interests of MediaWorks as a whole to close the station," MediaWorks said.
