Independent News to axe 170 jobs

INDEPENDENT Newspapers are to cut 170 staff, who are expected to avail of a €17 million voluntary redundancy package, details of which were formally put to staff yesterday.

The lowest payment to workers is estimated to be between €55,000 and €60,000 with the top-line package amounting to €250,000. The first phase of the plan — which will affect editorial staff across Independent News & Media’s (IN&M’s) three main Dublin-based titles the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Evening Herald — is due to close in May and will probably see around 34 jobs outsourced by that time.

In a statement yesterday, IN&M said: “Given the generous severance terms on offer, a much higher uptake is anticipated with the final numbers reflecting demand for the package as well as ongoing product requirements.”

IN&M is looking to outsource the ‘non-live’ news content (basically those working on supplements, magazines and non-day to day news articles and features) from its three Dublin titles. The jobs are due to be outsourced to Dublin-based publisher RE&D.

Staff are believed to be offered the chance to join RE&D as part of their package.

It is understood that the main redundancy package will feature six weeks pay for every year of service plus a statutory extra of two weeks pay for every year — with 60% of the statutory pay being met by the State.

Previous speculation had suggested that the jobs could be outsourced north of the border — possibly to Armagh, although that has been proved wide of the mark.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is to meet later today for reaction talks in the face of IN&Ms plans. A representative would not say anything at length in advance of those talks but did say that the union was opposed to the principle of outsourcing, which it felt was unjustified in this instance given how highly profitable the company (IN&M) was.They added that such a move could have a negative knock-on effect on the editorial quality and content of IN&Ms three main newspapers here and would be a concern to unions.

The group is expected to report a strong set of annual results for 2006, next month. Its share price closed up slightly at €3.54 in Dublin yesterday.