There was a quote from Gary McCormick about Today FM shutting down in the Herald this morning, this coming after he moved over from More FM and was only on Today for 5 weeks. Surely Mediaworks must have had an inkling of what was going to happen by then? In any case, McCormick is quite unhappy and I daresay he could be taking legal action:
A stable of big-name broadcasters was suddenly silenced with the well-publicised closure of Today FM late last month. As Media Insider revealed last week, a large cohort of axed staff are looking at a group legal action to take on MediaWorks and the way it handled the closure.
You have to feel for one of New Zealand radio’s best-known voices, Gary McCormick, who joined Today just five weeks before its closure, shifting across from the breakfast show on one of MediaWorks’ sister stations, More FM.
According to an internal document, McCormick is an independent contractor and therefore not eligible for redundancy. This seems a harsh outcome for a man who spent 19 years behind the microphone at More, helping it become a ratings monster at one stage.
*It is understood high-profile employment lawyer Penelope Ryder-Lewis will be representing McCormick - he has known her husband, Sir Hugh Rennie, for many years.
McCormick said he could not comment on any legal matters but he was looking at all of his options.
He said he was in a “state of shock” on the day of the closure. It had come completely out of the blue, as he was preparing for his weekly show, including an interview he had lined up. He had walked into the office and found a video call under way.
In an interview with Stuff’s Adam Dudding in February, McCormick said: “I am an organisation’s worst nightmare if they cross me. It’s just if I think something’s going wrong, then I’m not going to take it.”
Prescient words.
The bold part is what gets me - how was he a contractor? He only moved divisions in the company, not quit and came back later.