The bargaining committee has asked for a flexible arrangement, and the company rejected it, said Jason Speakman, an associate digital visuals editor at Men’s Health who is a member of the bargaining committee. The company’s journalists won a vote to unionize in July 2020 and are negotiating their first contract. On Thursday, the Writers Guild filed an unfair labor practice charge against Hearst with the National Labor Relations Board, saying the company had failed to provide requested information over return-to-office protocols. “We have seen our colleagues adapt to unprecedented changes in our work lives without a drop in productivity.”Ī Hearst spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a request for comment. “We support a continuation of the functional norm that we have reached as a result of our extraordinary circumstances, with employees and teams able to make decisions that are appropriate for their work needs,” the petition said.

It calls for the company to do away with required office days, according to a spokesman for the Writers Guild of America, East, the union that represents Hearst journalists. Some 300 - a majority of the approximately 550 in the magazine division as well as the 450 in its union - sent their petition to a top Hearst executive on Monday.

“Adjusting to this new way of working will require the same flexibility, patience and collaboration that we all demonstrated when we began working from home.”Įmployees have pushed back. “We recognize that returning to the office is a big step and that some people are apprehensive about it,” Debi Chirichella, Hearst’s president, said in an email to staff last month. Hearst is also requiring that all employees be vaccinated. Eventually, workers will be required to be in the office - the Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan for many - three days a week, the company has said. 15.įor the first two weeks, workers are expected to come in once a week then the requirement will be two days per week until early 2022. Hearst, whose titles include Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Good Housekeeping, told staff members in October that they would be required to return to U.S.

More than 300 employees at Hearst’s magazine division have signed a petition objecting to the company’s plan to have them return to the office starting next week, and their union has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

An extraordinary union