Publishers bring back furloughed staff

Furloughing is coming to an end at most of the big publishing firms, with many presses saying they have no plans to make redundancies following the Covid-19 crisis.

With employers expected to make a 25% contribution to furloughing costs from 1st August as the government's Job Rentention Scheme is scaled back, the majority of publishing staff are now returning to work.

HarperCollins UK announced this week that all its staff had now been brought back from furlough following a better than expected period during the lockdown. C.e.o. Charlie Redmayne even said his firm would not be taking government money for the scheme, instead absorbing the costs itself.

Other presses spoken to by The Bookseller this week said furloughed staff were also being brought back.

At Simon & Schuster UK, c.e.o. and publisher Ian Chapman said the majority of the 10% of employees furloughed will have returned to work this week and the company was in a “strong position” despite the crisis.

He said: “There are a small number of employees whose roles are primarily focused on the practicalities of the office that will remain on furlough and we are reviewing the situation continually. All furloughed staff will continue to receive 100% of their salaries.”

Chapman added: “We have no plans to make any redundancies. Whilst the year has been a challenge in ways we could never have predicted, we have responded proactively and with ingenuity across all departments and, as a result, now find ourselves in a strong position as we head into the second half of the year.”

Hachette UK said most of its staff would be back at work by the end of this month, with less than 2% on furlough in July. The firm furloughed around 10% of roles across distribution and publishing for an initial six-week period in April.

“We have no redundancies planned as a result of the lockdown,” a spokesperson added.

It is understood Penguin Random House will continue furloughing staff, but only until the end of July. C.e.o. Tom Weldon initially announced the “temporary but necessary measure" on 7th April. The firm never revealed a figure for the amount of staff furloughed across the business but said all of them would be paid 100% of their salaries.

Pan Macmillan was the first big publisher to act as the coronavirus outbreak escalated, announcing a voluntary pay cut for higher paid staff and only furloughing a handful of publishing workers, alongside others at its distribution business.The pay cut will end this month, communications director Sara Lloyd said.

She explained: “At Pan Macmillan we furloughed three people in total, two of whom have returned from furlough and one who will remain on furlough until September. The voluntary pay reductions come to an end in June and we will not be extending them. We are not planning any redundancies.”

Lloyd added some MDL staff did remain in furlough but no redundancies were planned there either.

Among indies, Atlantic m.d. Will Atkinson said his firm had used the furlough scheme "reasonably heavily" in April and May but everyone would be back in July for a big autumn push and there would be no redundancies.

He said: "We've managed our cash resources as carefully as we could for the last 12 weeks, we're looking pretty solid at the moment. We need to get our autumn plans absolutely nailed down, you can only do that with everyone's shoulder to the wheel, so that's what we're doing. Our e-book sales are two or three times up too. Furloughing has made a difference in terms of outlay, but we need to move onto a difference phase now. Of course we still need to be careful, but we're full steam ahead."

Bonnier Books UK, which furloughed around 10% of staff, declined to comment on its plans.