Enhanced terms for people applying for voluntary redundancy at the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail newspapers has emerged as a key strategy of the National Union of Journalists, in the wake of news that the papers' publisher, Trinity Mirror, is seeking to shed over a third of their journalists.
This morning, the NUJ's Scottish Organiser, Paul Holleran, met with Trinity Mirror director of national newspapers, Mark Hollinshead, which then led to two mass meetings of NUJ members, at 3pm and then at 5pm, interspersed with another meeting between Holleran and senior management.
Said Holleran: “It's very simple. If Trinity Mirror want to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies and all that goes with it, then they will need to improve terms.”
Currently, on offer is two weeks for every year but with a cap for long-servers. Statutory redundancy is one week's pay per year for those aged between 22 and 40 and 1.5 weeks' pay per year for those aged 41 and above.
Some 90 editorial posts are at risk of redundancy.
Says Holleran, already agreed is a scrapping of nine names said to have been already identified to be invited to move to Yorkshire to operate a Daily Record/Sunday Mail unit within editorial agency, the Press Association. He says a staff-management working group has also been set up to look more closely at the staff implications of new technology and working methods.
“The mood at the mass meetings was one of people still stunned.”
He added: “There are ways of taking this forward and we are prepared to pursue every avenue in an effort to protect our members and the integrity of these popular Scottish titles.”
