By Colin Crummy
Irish Times management has reacted to allegations of “indefensible”
pay hikes made in a protest letter, signed by more than 75 staff, to
the chairman and governors of the company.
A statement on behalf of the editor and five executive directors
said their performance-related pay amounted to just 2.6 per cent of
profits.
The protest letter, signed by senior journalists
including US correspondent Conor O’Clery, had claimed: “The total pay
of the executive directors of The The staff letter took issue with this
“extravagant, disproportionate and indefensible” level of payment,
particularly at a time when editor Geraldine Kennedy and managing
director Maeve Donovan had informed staff of the need for “rigorous
cost management”.
The management plans to make 35 to 40 redundancies from the paper’s workforce of 544.
Management
said the job cuts were part of a move to a new building in Tara Street
from the newspaper’s premises on D’Olier Street, Dublin.
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