THE Scottish Office of the National Union of Journalists is to lose one of its staff members – though the hope is that a replacement will be soon found.
Assistant organiser, Jim McNally, is officially retiring – after eight years working for the NUJ – on the 23rd of next month.
But he is hoping to continue being involved with the union, in particular providing training on an increasingly hot topic within the Scottish media: combating workplace stress and bullying.
No immediate replacement has been lined up but McNally says he is confident one will be found soon.
For some time, the NUJ in Scotland has been conducting health and safety audits, with the support of the UK-wide body, the Health and Safety Executive.
Currently, an audit is taking place at The Herald group of newspapers into the impact of a recent staff reorganisation, which involved a large number of voluntary redundancies.
McNally told allmediascotland.com: “The hope is that funds can be sourced to make a serious push on health and safety, including the training of chapel officials.
“My background has not been newspapers, and I’ve been constantly shocked at the way management ride roughshod over staff when it comes to health and safety.
“I attend meetings with management and ask about hours, lunch breaks and screen breaks and am amazed at some of the answers.
“You speak to staff and ask when their shift ends, and they’ll say, ‘Depends’; when do they take a screen break, and they’ll say, ‘What’s a screen break?’; how long is their lunch, and they’ll say, ‘We don’t take a lunch break’.”
