Journalists at Dundee-HQ’d DC Thomson have slammed company over its decision to refuse an overall pay award this year for a second consecutive year despite the firm making almost £100m prifit last year.
The move marks the second year in a row that staff have received no overall pay rise at the Scottish media group, which includes newspapers The Press and Journal, Dundee Courier, and the Sunday Post, radio station Original 106 as well as a number of magazines, including The Scots Magazine, The Beano and The People’s Friend.
DC Thomson have directors awarded themselves £50m in dividends over the past two years while staff received consecutive 0% pay ‘awards’.
In an email to staff the company blamed inflation and market pressures, as well as increases to employer’s National Insurance contributions. Lynsey Scott, chief people officer for DC Thomson, said: “Pay adjustments will be discretionary and carefully determined based on a range of factors including changes in responsibilities, experience in role, skills development and external market benchmarking.”
The move came after management refused to meet NUJ representatives to discuss the NUJ chapel’s pay claim, which asked for 9.8% for this year and last.
The NUJ DC Thomson chapel said: “DC Thomson’s decision to refuse to offer any pay rise this year to staff is offensive, not just to our hardworking members, but to all staff employed by DC Thomson.
“The NUJ’s rapidly growing chapel at DC Thomson submitted a costed, reasonable and proportionate pay claim, and asked for a meeting to discuss, but management refused to discuss or engage, preferring to ignore the voice of their editorial staff.
“This will be the second consecutive year no across-the-board pay increase has been offered, after last year’s cost of living crisis and now with household bills and expenditure continuing to go up while our pay stagnates.
“Staff are consistently driving growth and bringing in paying subscribers but this is not being recognised, let alone rewarded, in pay.
“Meanwhile, in 2023/24, DC Thomson directors recommended a total dividend of £25.7m, following 2022/23’s dividend of £24.9m. DC Thomson enjoyed almost £100m profit last year. It is a profitable company and can afford to pay its employees decent, competitive wages.
“DC Thomson has frequently declared how it is invests in journalism. This statement is difficult to believe when our members continue to live with real terms pay cuts, stagnant wages and continuing fears of reductions to editorial and newsroom staffing levels.”
Andy Curry, NUJ organiser, said: “DC Thomson is a profitable company who can afford to reward their editorial staff properly. This 0% pay award is an insult to our members who have been producing great reporting while living through a cost of living crisis. The company’s inflated dividends to owners have come at the cost of a salary increase to their staff who are struggling to make ends meet.”
A spokesperson for DC Thompson questioned the accuracy of the claim, however. They told Prolific North: “More than 80% of our colleagues across all of our teams have received a discretionary pay increase, based on a number of factors including evolving responsibilities, skills development and external benchmarking.”
