HR pros across the country are coming up with some creative plans to deal with the ongoing recession when upper management wants cuts in payroll.
At WCCO radio in Minneapolis, management has asked its highest paid on-air talent to take a 10% pay cut to limit the number of employees who would be laid off, according to MinnPost.com.
Afternoon host Don Shelby says he accepted the voluntary pay cut. CBS Radio Minneapolis market manager Mary Niemeyer confirmed that the offer was presented to other employees, but she wouldn’t say how many others accepted the voluntary pay reduction.
The station did announce it had to lay off two news reporters, one full-time, one part-time.
Also in Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, the newspaper, the Pioneer Press, has offered this cost-cutting opportunity to employees: They can take up to six months of unpaid leave in 2009 and return to their same job. The newspaper did something similar in 2001 and 2002.
Mike Bucsko, executive director of the Newspaper Guild, the union representing reporters and some other employees at the paper, said it might be better for some people to consider the offer rather than face other drastic cost-cutting measures.
What do you think of these alternatives to layoffs? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
