Vikatan group of media from TN has laid off 176 employees due to financial crisis

Dharshana Kathiresan, INN/Chennai, @Infodeaofficial

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and the announcement of a nationwide lockdown on 24 March 2020, the economy has been put to a severe halt.

The media industry is no exception and it is going through a huge economic crisis, which has affected hundreds of journalists. Even prominent organisations like, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Times of India, The Quint etc. have announced pay cuts or layoffs to manage the decline in revenue.

The Vikatan Group of Tamil Nadu, a 94-year-old organisation has retrenched 176 of its employees. They took this move of firing their workers, including reporters and photographers, without any prior notice.

In order to reduce their expenses (so that the profit margin can be maintained) and to retain the functioning of the organisation in the long run, this decision has been made.

Reports suggest that this was pulled off only on the basis of revenue issues and not on performance or positions. It also noted that they had to close a few regional offices to control costs.

Another source, who wishes to be unnamed said, “As the sales of magazines and books, and the possibility of conducting events have completely gone down, the organisation is suffering a major revenue loss.

This is one of the main reasons why they had to cut off so many workers. Even during the beginning of the lockdown, they sold the magazines for free of cost, in order to retain its customers and business”.

The Vikatan publishers own some of the most popular media assets like Junior Vikatan, Aval Vikatan, Chutti Vikatan, Ananda Vikatan, Nananyam Vikatan, Vikatan Televistas (production house) etc.

It also organises an annual award ceremony, Vikatan awards, for felicitating the people of Tamil cinema industry, which is highly prominent in the state.

On May 22 in Chennai, the Centre of Media Persons for Change (CMPC) held a demonstration against the decision of this publishing company.

A report stated that the Joint Secretary of CMPC, Haseef, said, “The Vikatan group has terminated the services of 176 employees all of a sudden.

This is unacceptable when the media workers are contributing massively even while the pandemic continues to spread in the state”.

Several cinema artists, social activists and educationalists have returned back the ‘Vikatan Awards’ presented to them by the organisation as a mark of protest against the retrenchment of employees and to gain the necessary attention to this issue.

Activist-Director Divya Bharathi, Magizhnan (Dialogue Writer of ‘Kaala’), Lenin Bharathi (Director of ‘Merku Thodarchi Malai’) have publicly announced that they will be returning their awards.

The facebook post of Divya Bharathi read, “I do not want the award presented by the Ananda Vikatan group, who has fired 176 employees. I am returning the award”.

In a post on social media, the director Lenin Bharathi has stated, “Condemning the Vikatan group, which has without a conscience, retrenched 176 of its workers, I am hereby returning two of the awards it presented the team of Merku Thodarchi Malai – one for Best Debut director and the other for Best Feature Film – back to the group itself”.

According to a report, the Vikatan group is also being accused of selectively terminating journalists, who work on social and political issues which are against the popular agenda. Allegations of religious bias towards the workers have also come to the light.

Many other newsrooms have also cut the wages of their workers and fired several employees. This has come as a shock to people, as journalists are in a position to cover this health crisis from the ground.

These abrupt announcements have left the affected employees with no options to appeal against it. Also, this whole termination process has overloaded the existing workers and has taken a toll on the journalists who lost their jobs and their families.

As usual, the mainstream media has turned a blind eye to this crisis in their industry. The government’s attention to this issue is also highly expected.