Journalists at news agency Thomson Reuters are to ballot on industrial action following an ‘insulting’1.5 per cent pay offer – with some claiming they would be unable to work for the company ‘because they cannot afford to pay their train fares to work or pay their bills”.
Journalists at its NUJ chapel are instead demanding a 7 per cent increase across the board.
NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said a ballot for industrial action was now ‘their only option”, and insisted that members had ‘tried to meet the management half way on pay issues’despite pay agreements dating back to before the credit crunch being ‘derisory”.
Yesterday, journalists at its NUJ chapel passed a resolution saying: ‘This chapel rejects the below-inflation offer of 1.5 per cent across the board as insulting after three years of real-term pay cuts.
‘This chapel insists on a return to the previous practice of annual across-the-board pay rises at least in line with inflation.
‘It demands 7 per cent across the board and in light of our continuing pay dispute, and the company’s failure to come close to our demand, the chapel will proceed with its ballot for industrial action.”
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