Poland: EFJ condemns planned layoffs at Ringier Axel Springer despite company’s profits
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its affiliates in Germany (dju in ver.di), Poland (Society of Journalists) and Switzerland (syndicom) in calling on the German Springer Group and the Swiss publisher Ringier to abandon their plans to cut jobs at their Polish joint venture, Ringier Axel Springer Polska (RASP).
According to information obtained by the dju, the company intends to reduce its workforce by almost 12%. With 1,350 employees, this could result in around 160 redundancies, despite RASP paying out 161 million zloty (around 37.86 million euros) to its shareholders in 2024.
Against this backdrop, the planned redundancies are all the more incomprehensible, explains Peter Freitag, co-chair of the dju and member of the EFJ Labour Rights Expert Group: “If a company has enough money to meet its shareholders’ return expectations, then employees must also have a share in the value they generate and not be punished with redundancies!”.
RASP President Aleksander Kutela attributes the need for cuts to big tech companies’s refusal to fairly compensate media for content use and the resulting decline in traffic.
The EFJ and its affiliates condemn the planned layoffs, and stand in solidarity with RASP employees and the Polish trade union Inicjatywa Pracownicza (IP) in their fight against job cuts and for fair working conditions. We fully support their legitimate demands to reduce the scale of layoffs and explore fairer solutions.
EFJ President Maja Sever said: “We recognise the challenges facing media in the digital age, but layoffs should never be the first resort. Journalists are the ones who generate the value that enables shareholders to be compensated. We urge Springer and Ringier to work with unions to find solutions that preserve jobs and fairness.”
The Independent Media Promoting Accountability, Community, and Trust in European Democracy (IMPACT) project will run from 1 January to 31 December 2026 and is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the EFJ only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
