Trades union members at the Birmingham Post and Mail have failed in a bid to get the company to pay forfeited bonus payments to charity.

Sixty-nine members of the NUJ who took part in industrial action last year had a profit-related bonus of £207 stopped because they were in breach of the bonus scheme rules.

The National Union of Journalists’ chapel challenged management to pay over the money to charity, suggesting the Birmingham Evening Mail Charity trust, which has been helping good causes for more than 100 years.

But a Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “The NUJ has no right to dictate how the company manages its finances.

“The NUJ decided to take strike action using a mandate where less than 28 per cent of the chapel, and less than 17 per cent of editorial staff voted in favour.

“The action was a breach of the bonus scheme rules, and the company advised all editorial staff in advance of the proposed strike that it would result in people forfeiting their right to any profit related bonus paid for 2003.”

Regional union organiser Miles Barter said: “It is not too late for the senior management at the Post & Mail, who are in line for massive bonuses themselves from meeting their financial targets, to do the decent thing and release cash.”

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