More than 300 staff at the publisher of the Yorkshire Post and Sheffield Star are to be balloted over strike action.
It’s due to an ongoing dispute over pay.
The National Union of Journalists said that it had been in negotiations with National World since February, as it sought to get a pay rise to help staff cope with rising costs and to address “low pay and pay inequalities within newsrooms.”
National World has offered staff a pay rise of 4.5% backdated to 1st April, but the union stated that this was below inflation and effectively a “real terms pay cut.”
The NUJ will now ask journalists to vote on whether they are willing to take industrial action in opposition to the proposed pay package.
“The decision to ballot our members is not one that we would ever take lightly but the journalists working for National World simply cannot afford to accept this offer. It would mean every member taking a real-terms pay cut as part of a deal that also worsens existing pay disparities within newsrooms and fails to tackle the appalling low pay in many areas,” said a group chapel spokesperson said:
“The pay survey we conducted last autumn shone a light on just how much many of our members are suffering due to a crippling combination of rising costs and stagnating salaries. We heard about members planning to leave the company or take on additional jobs because they simply couldn’t get by on the pay they get. The financial pressures they are under have only increased since then.
“Now is the time for members to stand together and tell the company that it must do better on pay. We will no longer accept vague promises of better rewards in the future. We want a meaningful pay rise that helps all our members to afford to keep doing the job that they love – and that brings an end to unfair pay practices.”
The move comes as National World has appealed to editorial staff who are “concerned” about its new digitally-focused operating model, to apply for voluntary redundancy.
