Oxford University Press company job cuts a ‘massacre’

Two-thirds of staff at Karger Publishers in the Swiss city of Basel have been dismissed just four months after the Oxford-based publisher took it over.

Swiss newspaper Basler Zeitung reported the individual notice periods range from one to six months.

It comes after OUP held a similar consultation for staff here in Oxford in November to made up to 113 job cuts, although the business declined to say how many it sacked.

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Basler Zeitung reports: “The company management justifies the job cuts with a necessary strategic realignment.

“The company wants to abandon certain business areas due to a lack of profitability.

“According to information provided by this editorial team, employees in particular have been dismissed from the areas of customer service, sales, IT and marketing.

“The finance department was largely spared from the redundancies.”

A source told the publication: “I had an online meeting with my supervisor. Each employee was given just 15 minutes to have their dismissal explained. It was a massacre.

“He told me he would now go through a script step by step. I think they were advised very intensively by lawyers in advance.”

More than 9,000 book titles and over 100 peer-reviewed journals have been published by Karger Publishing, making it one of Switzerland’s largest publishers of medical publications.

Oxford University Press said: “There were some organizational changes recently proposed at Karger Publishers which have been subject to consultation over the past few weeks. 

“The consultation has now closed and a number of colleagues will leave the organization over the coming weeks and months. I’m unable to share the specific number of colleagues affected.”