A spokesperson for NBC News denied that they are forcing staffers to return to work five days a week in their New York City office after a letter sent by the NBC News Guild accused them of instituting an inflexible new policy that had allegedly already seen several remote employees being given the boot.
In a letter signed by 210 members and shared to Twitter on Wednesday, the news guild protested the five-day RTO mandate and claimed that an unknown number of remote colleagues had already been “baselessly terminated.”
“Our members are organized — we’re ready to fight to protect our coworkers and win a RTO policy that actually makes sense,” the guild wrote, added that NBC News has” shown no interest in negotiating a serious deal,” and is instead “pushing an unsafe and inflexible return.”
However, a spokesperson for NBC News told TheWrap, “There is not and has never been, a five-day return-to-office mandate.” They added, “We remain committed to a flexible and hybrid workplace.”
The spokesperson also denied that any remote staffers have been fired over the issue. “As a matter of policy, NBC News does not comment on the employment status of current or former employees. However, no NBC News Guild employee has faced any form of termination because of their geographic location. We are in active discussions with the Guild over a safe and flexible return-to-office policy.”
This is far from the first clash between the guild and NBC News. The guild’s pinned tweet from August is about their two-year battle with NBC News over reducing union members’ salaries without bargaining.
On Thursday, Tate James, a video editor at NBC who leads the guild’s bargaining committee shared the following statement with TheWrap: “A supermajority of our members signed a letter opposing the company’s return-to-office plan because we stand united against NBC’s coercive attempts to force those of us with serious concerns back into the office.”
The statement also stood by its claims that remote staffers have been fired, and that the five-days-a-week office mandate which they say was given to one of their teams is “unlawful.”
“They are attempting to pressure the rest of us to comply with a return date that has not been bargained…” the statement continued. “We will not be bullied by corporate executives who are ignoring our right to bargain the terms and conditions of our employment, and we will not stand by while our coworkers are callously terminated. NBC executives must reinstate our colleagues and negotiate a fair agreement with us, with real flexibility and safety standards for workers with legitimate concerns about in-office work.”
