Practice Nurse may move to Elsevier Science site in KidlingtonThe NUJ chapel at Reed Business Information in Sutton, are questioning plans to close three medical weeklies, and move a fourth, Practice Nurse to the Elsevier Science site in Kidlington. The NUJ chapel at Reed Business Information in Sutton, are questioning plans to close three medical weeklies, and move a fourth, Practice Nurse to the Elsevier Science site in Kidlington. All four titles used to be published by RBI, but they were transferred three years ago to Elsevier Health Sciences, another division of the same company.
The proposed cuts could mean redundancy for 32 staff including 19 editorial jobs. Reed Elsevier attributes the decision to a drop in advertising, but the NUJ chapel says the titles have been mismanaged. Patric Cunnane, NUJ father of chapel at RBI, who represents Elsevier Healthcare staff on union matters, said: “Over the past few years …editorial positions have become vacant and not replaced and there has been a high incidence of illness due to stress within the titles, to the extent that RBI’s occupational health team has met with management to ask why so many people are off sick with stress. We have asked the company to look at the past proposals and find out if there is some way that at least some of the titles can be retained. It’s not just the jobs of the journalists that are at stake here; if these titles close it seriously diminishes the information that doctors in the UK will be able to access about their profession.”
The RBI chapel is one of the best organised in the magazine sector, with a long record of defending its members – most recently taking a lead in reaching an agreement over the introduction of multimedia working at the company. In contrast, the rise in NUJ membership at Pearson (previously Reed Elsevier’s Harcourt Education), Taylor and Francis and Macmillan has largely bypassed Elsevier Science in Kidlington. Membership there remains patchy and unorganised. It will come as a rude shock to staff on Practice Nurse, but should act as a stimulus to the branch to get Elsevier Science organised in 2008.
AW 2008-01-04
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