A survey by the Center for Quality Journalism reveals that 75 percent of young journalists are not paid for their probationary period, even though this is a legal obligation.
Author: Joel Cela, Panajota Merko
Blerina Allushi, 22 years old, who just graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Tirana, was promised in January by the managers of a news portal that after three days of probation it would be decided whether she would be employed or not.
With previous experience of working as a journalist in online media, three days passed and the managers of the portal asked her to continue working, until she started asking to be paid.
"After a week passed, I asked to talk about the payment. I was told that I should continue to work without pay because I had not adapted yet. I continued to insist and in the third week of work I was told to work another month without pay. I didn't accept and left", said Blerina.
Payment for work performed during the probationary period is a legal obligation in Albania, but a survey by the Center for Quality Journalism, conducted in February, with the participation of 56 journalism students and those who had just graduated in this field, shows that it is not applied in the vast majority of the Albanian media.
According to the survey, 75 percent of the respondents or 42 of them stated that they were not paid for the trial period, highlighting the great problem of labor relations in this sector.
Online media is not alone in abusing the trial period.
Mimoza Ibra, a young journalist, told the Center for Quality Journalism that she had worked for six months in a row at a television news station in Tirana and had not been paid any amount.
"From December 2016 to May 2017, I was on probation for six months. They never paid me, that's why I decided to leave", she said.
According to Mimoza, the same experience at the same television happened to her friend, who also worked for six months without being paid.
Informality is high, at a time when a regular employment contract is not signed between the employer and the employee in 86 percent of cases, which includes the trial period sanctioned by law.
Meanwhile, the State Inspectorate of Labor and Social Services, which has the obligation to identify and take measures for violations of the Labor Code, declares in a statement for the Center that it has not specifically identified the issue of unpaid work in the Albanian media.
This institution admits that it has carried out inspections in the media after complaints about non-payment of salaries - without specifying the number - but without focusing on the payment during the probationary period.
"We cannot differentiate how many of the cases of complaints about the non-payment of wages are related to the non-payment of work during the trial period", - it is emphasized in the answer given to the Center.
The survey shows that there is a high rate of unemployment among young journalists after the unpaid trial period. There are 25 cases where the work during the trial period did not result in their employment.
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According to Article 142 of the Labor Code, the trial period can last up to three months from the time the employee is invited to contribute to the company or institution based on a written contract.
The only relief during this period that the Code offers is the unilateral termination of the contract by the parties, notifying the other party of the decision at least five days in advance.
Aleksandër Çipa, the president of the Union of Albanian Journalists, considers the problem of unpaid work, hidden as probationary work in the Albanian media, as a chronic case.
"We have consistently and periodically raised it as a problem, presented specific data and statistics, and asked to encourage the establishment of journalists' unions in the Albanian media", he told the Center.
According to him, the establishment of these unions has been hindered, and even one such does not exist even in the public media.
In the survey, it was observed that in 32 percent of cases, "probationary" journalists are forced to leave on their own, as they notice that the chances of ever getting paid are very small.
Data and testimonies obtained from conversations with young journalists suggest that many media outlets have turned unpaid work into an abusive system, which allows them to help in the newsroom without financial obligation.
Blerina says that after she left the online media that did not pay her trial period, she learned that this practice was repeated there with many young journalists and journalism students.
"I also learned that after my departure, other young people were being sought by this online media," she emphasized.
Abusive practices of employment relations in the Albanian media have been inherent for many years, but it seems that at no time have there been any serious efforts by the institutions to take coercive measures against their managers.
