The National Union of Journalists has said it is to ballot members at The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times in Glasgow on industrial action for a second time, over a change to the date they are paid.

Some staff are unhappy with Newsquest changing the monthly pay date from the 20th to the 26th, and earlier this month ballot papers went out to around 230 NUJ members working on the group’s newspapers and magazines.

The union says 86.5 per cent of those who voted were in favour of strike action, and 93.8 per cent voted in favour of some form of industrial action.

But NUJ Scottish organiser Paul Holleran said the company had asked questions about who the union was balloting, which had prompted it to call a second ballot.

All NUJ members, including executives who were not previously balloted, will now be included. The new ballot will also coincide with a vote by around 220 Amicus members at the company.

Paul said: “We thought the result would get the company back round the table so that we could reach a compromise, but while the result shocked them they haven’t done that.”

NUJ members are calling for an across the board compensation package to be put in place.

Tim Blott, regional managing director of Newsquest (Herald & Times), has said that the company has offered to compensate staff who can provide evidence that they have been adversely affected by the pay date change.

The result of the second NUJ ballot should be known early next month.