While NUJ members at South Yorkshire Newspapers today settled their industrial dispute – at the Bolton Evening News journalists are taking industrial action in protest at new shift patterns.
Late working has been prompted by the decision to turn the paper into a morning publication – printed overnight.
Journalists have rejected an offer of £10 extra pay for those working after 9pm.
From 4 September until further notice, journalists will boycott later shift patterns, which they say will mean some staff working until midnight.
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David Thomson, NUJ father of chapel, said: “We feel that to move the Bolton Evening News to a daily [morning] paper, and bring in a new shift system with anti-social hours is unfair because it is something that staff didn’t sign up to when they joined the paper.
“We feel we have to take action because of the terrible knock-on effect this is having on people’s social and family lives.”
Thomson said the £10 payments offered to staff working beyond 9pm were “totally inadequate” and that journalists were asking for twice this amount or for extra payments to be consolidated into a salary increase.
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NUJ chapel members voted 74.4 per cent in favour of strike action earlier this month after new shift patterns were imposed in June.
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