Pay freezes sought at the Irish Examiner

STAFF at the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo newspapers have been asked to accept a pay freeze for 2009. Redundancies have not been sought.

Workers at the newspapers were briefed yesterday by management about a proposed pay freeze and work restructuring arrangements such as career breaks, job sharing and reduced working week initiatives.

Irish Examiner chief executive Tom Murphy said due to the current difficult domestic and international economic circumstances many Irish companies have been forced to seek redundancies and pay reductions this year. “The Irish Examiner is not contemplating any redundancies. However, it is seeking a pay freeze for all employees for 2009. This comes against a backdrop of a fall in advertising revenues, in line with the Irish market, when 2008 is compared with 2007. This fall in advertising revenue is common to all newspapers both in Ireland and internationally,” he said.