Some BusinessWeek workers assigned to temp agency

Keith Kelly of The New York Post writes Wednesday about how some BusinessWeek contract writers were assigned to a temporary agency.

Kelly wrote, “Last Friday, Executive Editor John Byrne on a conference call told the contract workers they were being reassigned to a contract with Kelly Services.

“In the past, they drew their paychecks from parent company McGraw-Hill and were assigned to work on a short-to-long-term basis for BusinessWeek.

“Though technically the moves, which involve both editorial and production workers, do not involve firings, that hasn’t stopped folks at the magazine from being jittery.

“‘People are pretty upset,’ said one insider. ‘They go from working for McGraw-Hill, which had some cachet, to working for a temp agency.’

“Many of the newly reassigned fear the change will make it a lot easier to fire them under the new arrangement.

“Some of the BusinessWeek online writers, however, were spared and converted into full-time BW employees.”

Read more here.