Newsquest titles across the country could be facing industrial action as union members voice their concerns on pensions.

A national ballot by the National Union of Journalists revealed that almost all the participants demanded that the newspaper group should stump up more money to help fund staff pensions.

Pension fund members at Newsquest were told in the summer that employee contributions would have to rise from six per cent at present to 10 per cent by 2011. For the average journalist this would push up the cost of keeping their final salary pension by between £40-£53 a month.

Of the survey returns, 88 per cent said they were a member of the Newsquest final salary scheme, three per cent were in the Newsquest defined contributions scheme and nine per cent said they were not in either of the company's pension schemes. The poll was open to NUJ members and non-members.

Eighty-five per cent of NUJ members taking part in the e-poll, the first of its kind at a major newspaper group, called for a formal vote on industrial action to defend pension entitlements.

With Newsquest's changes due to come into force on January 1, the focus of the NUJ's campaign will be on the annual pay round. Journalists strongly backed the idea of the company meeting next year's one per cent phased increase as an extra element to the overall salary rise. A total of 97 per cent of journalists in the NUJ poll agreed that the company should ease the burden in that way.

Newsquest has released a statement on the issue, which says: "As the NUJ is well aware, Newsquest has been at pains to engage and consult with all of its pension members.

"The position is that new legislation, including the requirement to fund the Pension Protection Fund, increased longevity, higher expected rates of long-term inflation and challenging long-term investment markets all contribute to either significantly increased costs or the requirement to fund benefits over a shorter period of time to enhance member security.

"It is with these issues in mind that Newsquest has designed changes to establish the scheme on a more sustainable basis for the longer term.

"It is important to note that in addition to Newsquest's increased ongoing contributions to fund future benefit accrual, Newsquest is also responsible, in discussion with the trustees of the scheme, for funding any deficit that arises."

Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, said: "The result of this national vote shows in the clearest possible terms that Newsquest journalists are united in believing they are being short-changed by their highly profitable company on pensions.

"They clearly want a new deal on pensions. They do not want to be driven away from having a decent retirement benefit by prohibitively high contributions.

"Chapel negotiators will be pressing hard for the company to shoulder more of the unacceptable burden falling on staff. If the company doesn't respond positively they could face the prospect of a damaging dispute."

The NUJ represents more than 1,000 journalists working for Newsquest in the UK.

Newsquest publishes 17 daily titles and almost 300 weekly newspapers and has a weekly readership of more than 13m among a weekly circulation of more than 10m copies.

There are approximately 8,500 employees.