Ballot to be Held at Herald Group on Whether to Continue Industrial Action

A vote on whether to continue industrial action at The Herald group of newspapers is to be held by the National Union of Journalists.

Yesterday, at a meeting of NUJ members working for The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times newspapers, it was decided better to ballot than accept reassurances secured by NUJ officials on Tuesday that people's hours would not be increased in the event of a current work-to-rule being brought to an end. The officials – including NUJ Scottish Organiser, Paul Holleran – said they believed management was also willing to talk about increasing pay.

The current work-to-rule followed a ballot held just before Christmas in protest at the axing of six editorial posts through compulsory redundancy, on top of six other posts being shed via voluntary redundancy.

A new ballot would serve two purposes, Holleran told allmediascotland.com. “To continue an industrial action requires ballots at regular intervals – that's the law. But also, people are fearful of possible future job losses, especially amid concerns that the Sunday Herald has lost sales following its recent relaunch. And the wording of the new ballot – expected within the next couple of weeks – will reflect where we are now, as opposed to the compulsory redundancies that were being proposed by the company before Christmas.”