Journalists at the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo are to vote on industrial action after rejecting a Labour Court recommendation on a pay claim, writes Barry O'Halloran

The 130 National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members at the company are seeking annual pay increases of 5 per cent over the years 2006 to 2008.

Management has offered 4 per cent for the first two years and 4.5 per cent in 2008.

The Labour Court recommended this deal, along with a clause stating that yearly profit-share payments to workers cannot be taken into account when pension rights are calculated.

Other Examiner unions, Siptu and Amicus, have accepted the court's recommendation, but NUJ members turned it down.

A spokesman for the NUJ chapel (branch) confirmed that its members intended going ahead and voting on whether or not to take industrial action, but could not say what this action would involve.

Other sources within the company said last night that it could involve some sort of work stoppage.

The union spokesman said that since the 1990s, pay at the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo titles had not kept pace with either the increases awarded in the national pay deal or with inflation. A survey of members found that journalists with 12 years service were earning an average of €35,000 a year.

"We have lost 12 per cent against the national wage agreement and 6 per cent against inflation," he said.

The spokesman added that staff there had not received a pay rise during the strongest period of economic growth in the Republic's history.

However, management maintains that workers have received generous profits shares during that time, a result of a deal struck during the 1990s.

A spokesman for Thomas Crosbie Holdings, which owns the titles, said yesterday that the union had not communicated the result of the poll on the Labour Court recommendation to management.

"They sought the Labour Court hearing and now they are rejecting its recommendations, which the other unions have actually accepted," he said.