Journalism-graduates face illegal temporary work

Each year, the University College in Oslo and Akershus (UCOA) educates many students hoping to land permanent employment in the field of media. However, few of the students Universitas spoke with think this will happen anytime soon. Two of these students are Tine Eide and Lars-Erik Kasin, who both study journalism at UCOA. They predict several years of temporary work before being hired permanently.

– I do not think you choose to study journalism because of the work prospects. We all know how difficult it is to get permanent employment, says Kasin.

Eide does not necessarily think freelancing during the start of your career is a bad thing.

– But working on a temporary contract makes planning your future in regard to starting a family and getting a home loan, much harder, Eide says.

Illegal temping

In the survey «Colleagues, not substitutes», the Union of Norwegian Journalists (NJU) conclude that temporary positions have replaced permanent positions in every third editorial staff in 2009-2010. Ketil Heyerdahl, advisor in NJU, works with the challenges of using temporary positions in the field of media. He points out that these are challenges that affect young people in a higher degree than others.

– The road into the field of media often goes through temporary work, so these questions are highly present for many young employees, he says.

Heyerdahl deems some of the temporary positions in the media field are possibly illegal.

– Legal temporary positions are, for example, substitutes for employees who are on leave or who are sick. The illegal ones, which we of course try to counteract, in reality have temporary employees doing the same work tasks as employees in permanent positions. We are under the impression that many media businesses use the latter.

Journalists on «airing»

NJU deems the use of temporary positions to be higher in the media field than in other areas of business. In their survey they estimate the share of temporary positions in media-Norway to be between 15 and 20 percent, while the average in Norway is eight percent in 2010. Heyerdahl elaborates.

– The media businesses use illegal temporary employment to a higher degree than other business fields. One reason this happens has to do with the amount of young people wanting to work in the media, and they are trying hard to make it happen, he says.

The union of journalists in Oslo (OJU) has organized a «temp-patrol», which investigates working conditions for temporary employees in media companies. Leader for the OJU, Martin Riber Sparre, explains how the patrol has uncovered several blameworthy situations.

– We found several aspects that did not coincide with laws and regulations. Several temporary employees did not know who they were filling in for, some had not had an increase in pay for several years, and temps who had worked in the company for some length of time had to leave for «airing», Sparre explains.

– Some temporary employees do not get to continue after they have worked for eleven months. The employers have an economical incentive for kicking out temps within a year. This way the employees lose all their gained pension rights.

Not at Aftenposten

Hilde Haugsgjerd, chief editor of Norway's largest newspaper, Aftenposten, does not recognize the NJU's critisism of the media's treatment of temporary employees.

– But why is the share of temporary employees so much higher in the field of media compared to other trades?

– That is a very uninteresting observation from NJU. The media-trade is in a rough transition where we are losing income due to digitalization. However, we are not replacing permanent positions with temporary positions, she replies.

– Is «airing» of temporary employees an issue in Aftenposten?

– No.

– We have spoken to current and former Aftenposten-employees, who claim Aftenposten «air» temps, in other words dismiss substitutes after eleven months so they will not have precedence on permanent positions. What is your comment on this issue?

– People do not temp in Aftenposten over a long stretch of time. If someone quits after eleven months, it is because their contract did not last longer. If they then join the editorial staff again after short time, it means they have applied for another temporary position, and obtained it. We do not have employees in temporary positions for several years, as NRK for example do, she says.