Breaking news: 3pm: TWO dozen journalists at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail have been told today they are no longer needed at the newspapers as the company merges production of the two titles.
The ‘tap on the shoulder’ has been taking place throughout the day, and a meeting of the National Union of Journalists’ chapel at the papers is taking place at 4pm, to discuss a response.
A 24-hour walkout starting Friday midnight has been scheduled for over a week, following similar industrial action last weekend. In between, there has been a work to rule.
In February, publishers, Trinity Mirror, said it was looking to cull up to 70 posts. Around 33 or 34 applications for voluntary redundancy have already been agreed and it is believed the 24 facing – in the parlance – ‘the risk of redundancy’ brings this round of job cutting to a close.
A NUJ ballot for industrial action – and the subsequent walkout – was prompted by fears that management would press on with compulsory redundancies to fill the gap between voluntary redundancies and what the publishers were looking for.
It is understood 22 of the 24 are NUJ members.
Among the names to have been told they are no longer required is the Aberdeen bureau chief, Bob Dow.
His colleague, reporter Charlie Gall, will continue working from the area but no longer from dedicated premises.
Only last week, the pair had been at the forefront of reporting the crash – 15 miles off Peterhead, on the Aberdeenshire coast – of a local, oil industry helicopter, with the loss of 16 lives.
After almost 30 years at the Daily Record, assistant news editor, Derek Masterton, is going, as is reporter, Ben Spencer, at the same paper for just over five years.
Joining them is Daily Record motoring editor, Bill Caven, who has been with the title for 14 years.
