By Sarah Lagan
Trinity Mirror has announced it is likely to axe yet more jobs across the group in response to “difficult trading conditions”.
The
move follows a hiring freeze which is already in place, the halting of
discretionary spending and news broken by Press Gazette last week that
it had cancelled all Christmas parties.
Union reps were gathered
at lunchtime today and told the move was in reaction to difficult
trading conditions and fears of a downturn in the property market.
A
memo was then sent out to all Trinity Mirror staff saying: “We are now
starting to review a number of measures to reduce or postpone cost. We
have already taken steps to reduce labour cost through vacancy
management, but it now appears likely that further steps will be
necessary, including the possible reduction in the number of our
employees. If such a course of action does become necessary, the
company will continue to follow its policy of calling for volunteers in
the first instance.”
The NUJ has hit out at the decision with
general secretary Jeremy Dear describing the cuts as an “obscene and
short-term reaction” to economic fears at a time when company profits
are above £250m.
Dear said: “Despite a 20 per cent rise in
operational profits, a 5.8 per cent increase in revenue and net savings
of £23 million Trinity’s increasingly greedy shareholders’ appetites
clearly haven’t been satisfied. Not content with cancelling Christmas
parties they are now creating a climate of fear and uncertainty
throughout the company. The short-term interests of shareholders are
being put before the long-term interests of the papers.”
The NUJ has called for a national meeting on 19 November and Dear has not ruled out the possibility of industrial action.
A
Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “All media owners are currently
experiencing tough trading conditions due to the slowdown in
advertising markets. We are reviewing a number of possible actions to
support our businesses, which may include redundancies, in what is a
challenging period for the entire media industry.
“We are
currently in consultation with our employees and their representatives
and it is too early to give an indication of the likely outcome of this
review.”
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