New York Jets prepare for layoffs and furloughs if there is no NFL labour deal
National Football League (NFL) team owners have threatened to lockout players unless a new collective bargaining agreement is signed by 3rd March. While the pace of negotiations has really picked up, there are serious issues that still need to
be resolved. Meetings are a positive sign but do not mean that a resolution to the dispute is possible before the deadline.
If there is no deal before the next season is scheduled to begin, the entire 2011 season might be cancelled. That means no pay cheques for players and no revenue for football clubs either.
The New York Jets are preparing for just such a scenario. Unless a labour deal is signed by the deadline, the Jets will begin to furlough employees. Their business operations employees will take an unpaid one-week leave each month until a labour deal is
reached. Executive Vice President of business operations, Matt Higgins confirmed the move on Monday.
Employees on the football side though, won’t be subjected to the furloughs. However, almost half of the people employed by the Jets are related to the business side. The Jets could resort to more extreme cost cutting measures if a deal is not reached before
the start of the 2011 football season.
On the other hand, if no games fall victim to the labour dispute, the employees who were furloughed will be eligible for complete reimbursement. “Our plan is predicated on shared sacrifice,” Higgins said. “Our goal is to emerge with the staff intact, and
this is the way to do that.”
The furloughed employees are part of a cost cutting measure on the business side of the Jets. Their target is to reduce costs by 25 percent while a lockout looms. Last year the Jets released almost 30 employees from their sales staff. However, those cuts
were not related to the labour dispute.
“Although we fully expect an agreement to be reached, it just makes sense to plan for the worst, and this plan is about shared sacrifice across the organisation to get through a period of uncertainty,” Higgins added. He said that between furloughs and salary
cuts, furloughs were the better option. Higgins said, “Furloughs enable us to cut back expenses but also give employees some time off.”
Not all teams are as concerned as the Jets about the uncertain labour situation. The Chicago Bears intend to continue business as usual. However, the Bears and the Jets are two very different organisations. The New York Jets are one of the largest organisations
in the NFL. The Bears on the other hand are much leaner and employ a much smaller number of people. However, they too will have to cut costs if the 2011 season is cancelled due to work stoppage.
Tags: