As reported on the 19 January on the National Union of Journalists website: The NUJ has responded with deep concern and has called for an immediate commitment to an improvement in redundancy terms for volunteers who wish to leave the company and assurances that workloads will be sustainable for those who will remain.
The company said the move will improve efficiency and boost digital revenue and in a series of announcements said that it would be making about 78 redundancies throughout the group at Trinity Mirror and Local World titles. Apart from 19 roles, it has defined as vital, all other vacancies will not be filled. Under the restructure of work and priorities, a total of 44 new roles are being created, including 17 specifically aimed at video journalists and producers.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “News of yet more cuts is a massive blow to journalists working throughout the group who need to be convinced that this new strategy for chasing digital growth is one that will actually yield results and – critically – one that will preserve quality journalism across the group.
"We have posed a number of questions to the company about the restructure and, along with our network of reps, will continue to discuss how we can minimise the number of redundancies and protect our members. A flexible redeployment process will be key to this, to ensure that the skills and experience of journalists whose roles are put at risk are not needlessly lost to the company.
"Another priority for us will be in securing fair treatment for journalists working across the Local World sites – we want fair, commensurate redundancy terms for all. When the public-facing corporate mantra is One Trinity Mirror, the same principles should apply to treatment of staff wherever they happen to work in the group - particularly under a plan that will involve more pooling of resources and merging of operations across the two businesses."
