The 180 journalists working at the Examiner group's daily titles moved a step closer to strike action yesterday after a meeting at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) failed to resolve differences with management over a pay claim.
Editorial staff at the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo titles are currently voting on a National Union of Journalists (NUJ) ballot for industrial action up to and including a strike in pursuit of the claim. They are seeking an 8 per cent pay increase over three years, dated from January 2003.
Representatives of the NUJ and management met with the LRC yesterday. However, the talks failed to come to a conclusion and it is understood that the NUJ plans to press ahead with its ballot.
Three other unions, SIPTU, Amicus-MSF and the Graphical, Paper Media Union (GPMU), are also pursuing claims and attended the same meeting yesterday.
Management yesterday put a three-year pay deal on the table. It offered 3 per cent over one year and 4 per cent over the succeeding two years, plus profit sharing, to staff.
It is understood that the three other unions will put this deal to their members but the NUJ will not. The journalists' union's claim is partly focused on the fact that editorial staff hired since 1995 are on a lower pay scale than those taken on before that date.
A union survey indicates that those on the lower scale earn an average of €26,000 a year, although a high proportion are paid less than this. The older group's scale starts at around €33,000, closer to the average for those working in the business.
The NUJ wants its claim structured to redress that balance.
The lower scale for new entrants was agreed in the mid-1990s during a period of financial difficulty for the Cork-based titles. The firm's fortunes have since turned around and it is now the second-largest media group in the State. The dispute does not currently involve the group's other businesses, which include the Sunday Business Post.
Thomas Crosbie Holdings is the Examiner group's ultimate parent. According to the latest available figures, Examiner Publications' wage bill came to €17.27 million in 2001. In the same year, it made €5 million profit on €50 million turnover.
