CNN agrees to pay $76 million in back pay in settlement with camera operators

CNN has agreed to pay $76 million in back pay as part of a record settlement with the federal labor board after the cable television network terminated the contracts of unionized camera operators in 2003.

The settlement is the “largest monetary remedy” in the National Labor Relations Board’s 85-year history, the agency said in a statement Friday. The settlement will benefit more than 300 people, officials said.

“The settlement demonstrates the board’s continued commitment to enforcing the law and ensuring employees who were treated unfairly obtain the monetary relief ordered by the board,” general counsel Peter B. Robb said in the statement.

The NLRB said CNN ended its contract with a unionized subcontractor, Team Video Services, and then replaced the workers with new employees “without recognizing or bargaining with the two unions that had represented the TVS employees.”

“After more than a decade of litigation, negotiation and appeals we are pleased to have resolved a longstanding legal matter,” a CNN representative said.