Journalists in York are fighting a legal battle against their employers over the right to inspect staff assessment records.

Newsquest (York) Ltd carried out assessments of all editorial staff at its daily title The Press and weekly stablemate the Gazette and Herald ahead of its recent redundancy process.

The company has agreed to a request from the National Union of Journalists under the Data Protection Act to reveal the scores awarded to each staff member, and managing editor Steve Hughes has said this wil be provided within 40 days.

But it has so far turned down requests to reveal who scored each member of staff, or to give assurances that the records will subsequently be destroyed.

The NUJ chapel at the two papers has now appealed to the Information Commissioner to rule on its request.

In a statement, joint fathers of chapel Tony Kelly and Gavin Aitchison said: “Newsquest used a scores matrix to assess all staff earlier this year. As a union, we believed the process was inherently flawed because it involved staff whose jobs were on the line assessing their colleagues.

“We unequivocally opposed the matrix but given the company chose to press ahead with its use, our staff have a legal right to see those assessments, to know who they were judged by, and – once the redundancy process is complete – to have those scores destroyed.

“The Data Protection Act gives individuals certain rights that cannot be ignored. It is disappointing we have had to go this far over what should have been an un-contentious request, but we know we have right on our side and are confident that the Information Commissioner shall find in our favour if it goes that far.”

Mr Hughes has so far not responded to requests for a comment.