Nine staff rebel as jet-setting top brass fly off on luxury overseas holidays, days after job cuts bloodbath

Fed-up Nine staff openly attacked bosses on internal chat channels when the media network's top brass jetted off on holiday in the wake of announcing 200 job cuts.

After confirming the axe would fall on hundreds of staff at the TV and newspaper empire, CEO Mike Sneesby immediately flew off to Greece for a family holiday.

Nine's managing director Tory Maguire told staff she would also be heading for a sunlounger and flying to Fiji after the Midwinter Ball in Canberra on Wednesday.

But the crass holiday plans have triggered a social media revolt on the company's internal Slack channel, it's been revealed.

And when details of the job cuts were posted on Slack outlining the redundancy terms, staff blasted the announcement with emojis of the Greek and Fijian flags.

The reference document was published this week, along with a message flagging further information on voluntary redundancies and the ‘next steps’ with managers over the coming fortnight.

But angry employees bombarded the post with the national flags as well as ironic high-five emojis, thumbs up, and side-eye icons, reported The Australian.

It comes weeks after Sneesby announced the job cuts to staff last month as part of a $30 million cost-cutting plan for the business.

'From our nationwide team of almost 5000 people, around 200 jobs are expected to be affected across Nine, including some vacant and casual roles not being filled,' Sneesby said.

'In order for us to be able to keep investing in digital growth opportunities across Nine, we must continue to responsibly manage costs through the cycle.'

The job cuts include 38 positions in the high-profile news and current affairs broadcast team, which included 9News and 60 Minutes.

Additionally, 90 jobs will be eliminated from Nine's publishing division, affecting roles at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Australian Financial Review.

Staff at Nine were reportedly blindsided by an email informing them of the job cuts, which represented four per cent of the company's workforce.

He blamed decreased advertising sales for the job losses when he made the announcement last week. 

 It's understood that his annual leave had been planned prior to the cuts. 

The announcements follow the exit of news boss Darren Wick in March after a complaint was lodged by a female employee about inappropriate conduct.

His replacement Fiona Dear told staff the jobs cuts will see a 'loss of 38 roles around the division, 12 of these positions are already vacant.'

Nine publishing director Maguire, who heads up The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and WAtoday, said the end of the deal with Meta had also hurt the publishing side of the business.

'This week … the deal with Meta is over and the significant revenue incoming under that deal has ceased,' she said.

'While we are encouraged by our constructive conversations with the Federal Government about enforcing the code, the only thing currently certain is that we don't have an ongoing deal with Meta.

'The advertising market remains very challenging and while the publishing and sales teams are working together on a range of new initiatives our forecast for FY25 is reflective of the market outlook.'

A new enterprise bargaining agreement is still being negotiated after the existing one expired on Sunday.

The new deal is tipped to cost the network significantly more money in staff salaries.

The company's struggles have impacted Nine Entertainment's share price, with it dropping to $1.37 at close on Monday, which is a loss of over 32 per cent across the last six months.