The National Union of Journalists has shelved plans for company-wide industrial action across Johnston Press after concluding an agreement with the company for greater consultation about future restructuring plans.

Major job cutbacks earlier this year at JP centres in Sheffield and Edinburgh raised the prospect of a nationwide dispute.

But the union announced today that discussions with senior JP managers have resulted in new commitments to improve dialogue between the company and the union and to seek to avoid redundancies as the company restructures its operations.

And Johnston Press chief executive Tim Bowdler said he recognised the need to ensure that “proper consultation” takes place on future changes.

The agreement follows a series of meetings and correspondence between NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear and Mr Bowdler since the job cuts in Yorkshire and Scotland were first announced.

It includes greater involvement of the NUJ in considering restructuring plans and in establishing a process that can help avoid any move to compulsory redundancies.

It has also been agreed that any restructuring plans will involve a commitment to carry out risk assessments to ensure there are sufficient resources to avoid excessive additional workloads for staff who remain.

The NUJ had been consulting members about the possibility of a company-wide dispute over cutbacks and low levels of editorial investment. However, the union has now said it intends to hold back on this to see if the new arrangements will be able to address members’ concerns.

Mr Dear said: “We welcome the progress that has been made in recent weeks to establish a more constructive working relationship with Johnston Press. As ever, the proof of any agreement will be in how it is implemented and our members will be keeping a careful eye on managers at a local level to ensure they abide by these new commitments.

“There remains a great deal of concern at some of the decisions that are being made, their impact on jobs, workloads and conditions and their implication for the future.”

Speaking to HoldtheFrontPage, Mr Bowdler said: “It’s a genuine attempt to face up to difficult times in a manner which recognises the uncertainties that exist.

“It doesn’t change the need of the business to respond to the current market environment or indeed the need of the business to adapt as new technology emerges. But it is important that it’s done with proper consultation and the discussions I’ve had with Jeremy Dear recognise and reiterate our commitment to that.

“We as a company have always recognised the importance of consulting properly with our employees and considering carefully the changes we make,” Mr Bowdler continued.

But he added: “I can think of situations in the past where we might have announced a change and then gone into consultation.”

Welcoming the union’s decision to suspend plans for industrial action, Mr Bowdler said: “I didn’t regard the likelihood of industrial action as necessarily something that would occur

“The reality is that any form of industrial action is not going to help anyone. It’s not a very intelligent way of addressing the difficult issues which we face as an industry,” he added.

Despite the agreement, the NUJ is planning to run a survey of Johnston Press members to assess the level of stress faced by journalists on the company’s titles in a bid to ascertain the degree to which cutbacks are posing a risk to people’s health and safety.

Mr Dear said: “Johnston press has a duty of care to its employees. We must ensure that stress levels aren’t endangering our members’ health and wellbeing.”

Comments

Hizz (12/11/2008 18:23:39)
If that isn’t an argument for joining the NUJ I don’t knoiw what is. Northcliffe employees take note (you know who you are)