The Independent has announced that it will cut 20 jobs and has agreed a 3.5 per cent pay increase for all staff.
NUJ mother of chapel and Independent travel editor Kate Simon confirmed that a pay deal had been reached after the chapel rejected a 2.4 per cent deal offer last year.
Although the number of voluntary redundancies is set at 20, Simon said it could be increased, but managers will then have re-enter talks with union officials.
She said: “In a climate where people are leaving, and we don’t know how many, it was the best deal that could be achieved.”
Press Gazette reported last month that Independent News and Media Group plc offered staff an across-the-board voluntary redundancy package, including one month’s pay for every year of service, which editor-in-chief Simon Kelmer called the “most generous seen in Fleet Street for years”. The deadline for staff to apply for the deal is next Wednesday.
In a separate move, the chapel has extending a deadline for IMG to release details of the Independent’s pay structures. They now have seven days in which to hand over salary figures before the chapel goes to the Central Arbitration Committee and enlists the help of NUJ solicitors.
Simon said The Independent was the only national newspaper whose NUJ chapel did not have such information.
One senior member of staff to take the redundancy deal is Independent on Sunday executive editor Mike Williams. He will be replaced by Independent executive editor John Mullin. Mullin’s replacement is Independent night editor Dan Gledhill.
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