The recruitment freeze, which is set to run at least until the end of September, also includes a reduction on freelance or holiday cover.
A memo sent out to staff included a stipulation that any employee to leave in the three-month period from July to September would not be replaced.
RBI father of chapel Patric Cunane said the NUJ had compiled a dossier, which includes a list of positions not being filled and points out a lack of freelance cover in some areas. He said that, in some cases, people had not been able to take holidays because of the workload.
The union is also representing a full-time member of staff who claims the company has proposed to replace her with a freelance. The RBI staffer is understood to be part of a small editorial team that the company sought to disband, retaining the freelance on a rolling contract.
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‘We have been opposing that on the grounds of unfair selection,’said Cunane. ‘We have gone from the position of trying to stop the person being removed from a particular publication to trying to extend their period of employment with the company to find a suitable alternative position.”
The redundancy is the result of the title moving online, which has meant less work, Cunane said.
‘We accept that there was a reduction in work, but even the company accepts it was unusual not to retain the employee over the freelance worker.
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‘The key thing here is that we are always concerned about the casualisation of the workforce and in this case it’s fairly blatant that that’s what has happened.”
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