Openfile withholding pay

A group of Montreal journalists launched a collective action Monday against the community based news site, Openfile.

According to an article by the Concordian, the journalists were being kept waiting for up to two thousand dollars of unpaid work for over a month.

In response, four former contributors wrote an open letter and published on a Tumblr page, demanding overdue pay and an explanation for the websites hiatus.

CEO of Openfile, Wilf Dinnick, published a post on the website on September 28th, announcing a hiatus with no word on when it would be online again.

On October 2nd, Dinnick sent a group email to writers and editors, promising to pay overdue invoices within 60 days. According to the journalist’s open letter, some writers have been waiting more than 90 days.

Justin Ling, media spokesperson for the authors of the open letter, said that Dinnick contacted him shortly after the letter was published, and was left confident that everyone would be paid by the end of the year.

On a less positive note, J-Source published a recent article which quoted Dinnick saying that auditors had taken the books, stopping him being able to write the cheques for now. No further or official word about the auditing was made.

STORY WRITTEN BY: CATLIN SPENCER