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September 11, 2003updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Emap journalists to vote on strike action

By Press Gazette

Journalists at Emap Healthcare/PSM will be asked if they want to take industrial action over a 3 per cent pay offer across the board.

An NUJ ballot, starting on Monday, could pave the way for a repeat of last year’s strike action.

Emap held talks with the union at an ACAS meeting to try to resolve the dispute. The NUJ said it would have accepted a marginally improved offer across the board.

Nick Morgan, managing director of Emap Healthcare, offered 3.5 per cent, but only to staff on the minimum grade (£21,000) but refused to say how to how many staff this applied.

In March the NUJ put in a claim for an 8 per cent rise across the board, along with improved minimum wage and holidays. Emap returned with the offer of 3 per cent after creating a bonus scheme.

An NUJ spokesman said: “The problem we faced was that management have made announcements to the union but not negotiated with us as partners. This dispute is as much about management recognising the union not just on paper but in reality.

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“Emap’s results are much better than last year and on that background it seems extremely miserly. After years of pain on the journalists’ side, we want to see something better from their side.”

An NUJ spokesman added: “This is not a militant chapel and the vote should be a very strong signal to management, especially a year after the strike, that people aren’t at all happy about the way Emap is treating them. If it carries on the way it is going, a strike is going to happen again.”

Emap declined to comment.

The ballot result will be known in two weeks.

Last September, 40 journalists at Emap took part in strike action.

By Ruth Addicott

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