Express Newspapers is planning to postpone its January pay review, its managing editor said today.
Ian Parrott told Press Gazette that the January pay review has been put back until June as part of a cost-cutting drive across the group – which publishes the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star, and the Daily Star Sunday.
“Everybody is feeling the pinch at the moment,” he said. “The budgets are lower than last year, but that’s because of the situation we find ourselves in.”
The National Union of Journalists said today that it had not accepted the pay freeze, and hoped January’s review would still take place.
National organiser Barry Fitzpatrick said: ‘We have only had one meeting, and we haven’t accepted that [the pay freeze].
‘We’re expecting to meet again to discuss what, if any, the alternative is. One of our concerns is they have already made a massive saving on closing the pension scheme.”
Last year, it was announced Express Newspapers was closing its final salary pension scheme, saying it was too costly to maintain. The closure affected staff who joined the group between 1988 and 1997.
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