Memo: PMNA announces ‘temporary’ layoffs after Torstar cancels contracts
The following memo was sent to staff on June 3 from Ed Brouwer, managing director of Pagemasters North America
I regret to inform you that effective July 1, 2020 Torstar has decided to take back the work we were doing in print for their shared sections out of Calgary and the digital work out of Toronto and Calgary. We will be instituting temporary layoffs in response to this by desk associated with the Star work in Calgary and Toronto. As with the temporary layoffs in agate we await the return of sufficient work from new and existing clients to take the place of what has left. We are instituting temporary layoffs with the hope we will be successful in finding additional work and continuing to employ those who have done such a stellar job on the Torstar work. We will continue to service Torstar for sports and financial agate work, archiving as well as the wheels and travel sections.
We will also once again consider a limited number of voluntary temporary layoff candidates from unaffected desks for those wishing to pursue that option. Please contact your direct supervisor by Monday, June 8, if you are interested in this option. There are a limited number of voluntary temporary layoffs that can be accepted and will be at the discretion of the company as we may not be able to accommodate requests due to operational considerations.
Additional information will follow from HR and managers to those directly impacted so they may plan accordingly. As always our intent is to weather this uncertain environment and position ourselves for a strong recovery.
There continues to be ongoing great work produced by everyone at PMNA and I would like to thank you all for that. This is an unprecedented time and I wish you and your loved ones good health and hopefully more certainty related to issues around COVID-19 in the days ahead. We will continue to communicate as we have new information.
