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The
NUJ Scottish Office welcomed at the appointment of
Jim McNally as a new Assistant Organiser from 1st
October. Jim has worked closely with staff and chapels
in the last year thanks to external training funding
but has now been brought onto mainstream staff.
Daily
Newspapers
The
NUJ celebrated a massive victory against management
at Aberdeen
Journals after, Mother of Chapel and Grampian
branch chair, Eugenie Verney won her tribunal for
unfair dismissal. Although the tribunal did not suggest
a reason for her dismissal, the union argued that
it was for union activities. The tribunal ordered
that the company should reinstate Eugenie.
Remarkably,
they appealed despite having no legal argument and
not surprisingly the Employment
Appeal Tribunal dismissed the appeal. We now await
their next move with bated breath.
Taking
advantage of this boost, the union stepped up the
recognition campaign at Aberdeen Evening
Express. Local activists are continuing their
recruitment efforts in a bid to establish more than
50 per cent membership prior to a further claim to
the Central Arbitration
Committee to launch a ballot for recognition at
the Journals tabloid title. A new and impressive leaflet
has been distributed.
Two
other cases where sub-editors have left under a cloud
will no doubt lead to a spate of applications from
the Evening Express as the union considers taking
tribunal claims on behalf of the affected members.
Daily
Record & Sunday Mail
A new
freelance agreement is in the pipeline after the union
challenged management action over the issue of regular
casuals. In an attempt to reduce employment rights
for some long-term casuals management had told desk
heads to stop using certain NUJ members for shifts.
The
chapel officials and Scottish Organiser told the company
this was unacceptable and talks are now under way
on a new agreement, protecting casuals.
The
chapel has also called for staffing levels to be reviewed
after complaints over heavy workloads. The argument
for senior staff to remain in the union was once again
made quite forcefully when the Scottish Organiser
represented the Daily
Record Features Editor at a disciplinary meeting.
The company attempted to sack the individual but,
after the union put forward a strong case, a five-figure
severance package was agreed.
The
Scotsman Publications Ltd
Chapels
at The
Scotsman Publications Ltd are stepping up their
campaign for a fair and equitable pay structure and
are meeting management to take forward talks on pay.
A tribunal claim has been submitted on behalf of a
former foreign editor at TSPL, following his dismissal.
Newsquest
Strathclyde
Newsquest
chapel officials were shocked when a trawl for a dozen
volunteers for redundancy across The
Herald and Evening
Times resulted in a queue forming to get out of
the door. Around 80 members are seeking details of
the offer, 62 from The Herald alone. Many have expressed
their concern and unhappiness with the editorial management
and allegations of bullying are rife.
The
chapel officials have asked the management to conduct
exit interviews with those leaving. We are also monitoring
new contracts being handed out by management, after
a promotion offer was made which included a reduction
in holidays and sick pay entitlement.
Weekly
Newspapers
Johnston
Group
Borders
and Bonnyrigg are to begin negotiations with the chapels
seeking a pay rise and structure similar to those
of their colleagues in the central belt and Fife.
Clyde
and Forth
Ayrshire
group chapel settled for a three-year deal worth seven
per cent. Talks were completed quickly following major
delays in the last two sets of negotiations. A settlement
was reached with the company after the union submitted
a tribunal claim on behalf of a member claiming discrimination.
An official
claim for recognition has been submitted to Archant
Scotland. We have members in most of the nine
papers and are confident of getting a voluntary or
statutory agreement using ACAS.
Both
Trinity-S&UN and Johnston Groups have started
holding regular liaison meetings with the respective
group chapels to improve communications between managements
and the union representatives.
Broadcasting
Individual
contract negotiations are continuing at STV
in an attempt to reduce pay anomalies. Talks are ongoing
on a list of members who will receive extra increases
in January 2004 as part of the recent pay agreement.
A number
of individual cases at BBC
Scotland have been handled in recent weeks and
support for the new Father of Chapel and recently
resurrected Glasgow Broadcasting branch is being stepped
up by the NUJ Scottish office.
Freelance
Increases
in freelance rates for a number of weekly titles (Greenock
Telegraph (Clyde & Forth press Group) and
a commitment from management at Inverness
Courier, Highland News (Scottish Provincial Press
Group)) to increase their rates to that of the other
weekly groups were also achieved with support from
the chapels involved.
Talks
continue at Newsquest
Strathclyde over a new freelance agreement, the
first for three years. Newly elected branch officers
at the West of Scotland Freelance Branch have started
working closely with the organisers in developing
practical steps to help freelances in areas of payment
and copyright breaches.
A meeting
has been arranged to discuss the new proposals to
freelance photographers at Newsquest which include
increased rates for reproduction fee waivers.
Legal
action against Scotsman Publications on breach of
copyright for use on the web has now started although,
within weeks of the case being lodged, management
intimated their interest in achieving a settlement
out of court.
The
photographers involved have suggested they would prefer
the case to go ahead to set precedent rather than
reach a cash settlement. A meeting took place last
week involving the union legal team, some of the photographers,
the Scottish Organiser and the Scotsman lawyers.
Some
progress was made with the company side conceding
ground on use of images on web-sites. Further talks
are planned soon.
A claim
has been submitted to the Employment Tribunal for
a long-term freelance dropped by Scotsman Publications
without notice. Two similar cases have been taken
up against the Paisley Gazette and also the Ayrshire
Leader managements after photographers were appointed
without reference to the long-term freelance snappers.
Public
Relations
The
newly elected Scottish
National Party group of MSPs have agreed to sign
up with the NUJ, collectively, for a recognition agreement
covering PR and research staff as part of their new
standing orders for the new parliament. Recruitment
in the parliament continues to bring in new members
and training courses have been arranged. Talks with
the Scottish
Socialist Party have also proved fruitful in recruiting
new members and expanding the training provision.
Books
HarperCollins
chapel spent four months trying to make headway with
management after a two per cent offer was made. The
issue of collective bargaining was paramount during
the extended talks.
At the
conclusion of the pay deal the company announced redundancies
in the dictionary section. The chapel threatened industrial
action to force full and meaningful consultation including
discussion on alternatives to job losses. The
company conceded and have now entered talks on the
new procedures and agreed that a cultural change on
consultation was required.
Longstanding
MoC Val McNulty took advantage of the redundancy terms
and left after 26 years in post - of course she was
invited back in within weeks to do freelance work
for them.
Training
The
NUJ Literacy Training
programme was unveiled at the STUC
annual congress, with a number of trial runs being
carried out by activists over the next few weeks.
The project can be done on-line or via cd-rom and
is aimed at improving writing and grammar skills.
Plans to expand the project are underway as new funding
bids have been successful with the Scottish
Executive announcing another tranche of money
covering the next three years.
A number
of initiatives on improving the NUJ standing with
ethnic minorities have proven to be quite successful
recently. A conference, Understanding Islam, raised
some controversy but was an outstanding success with
wider dialogue taking place to take things forward,
including training for Radio Ramadan a local station
running through the Islamic holy week.
The
NUJ in Scotland has also joined in a pilot scheme
with the Commission
for Racial Equality to develop trade union links.
The scheme includes training and guidance for chapel
officers and full-time officers in handling race discrimination
cases.
Meetings
with the Scottish
Refugee Council have also resulted in ongoing
training being developed with active NUJ members.
In November we will see the publication of an impressive
booklet produced following cooperation between Amnesty
International and the Union on press coverage
of asylum seekers and refugees.
New
training programmes for Public Relations Officers
within AMICUS
and for UNISON
activists are under way and the Assistant Organiser
has set up a training programme for the Scottish
Parliament media department. This will provide
the union with recruitment opportunities as well as
work for freelance members delivering training.
Paul
Holleran
Scottish Organiser
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