Talks to start on 10% pay cut request at Irish Examiner and Evening Echo

UNIONS representing staff at the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo newspapers are to start talks on Wednesday on a management request for a 10% pay cut.

Workers at Examiner Publications Cork Limited (EPCL), publishers of the Irish Examiner and Evening Echo, were told at a staff briefing on Saturday that the company’s defined benefit (DB) pension scheme currently has a €20 million deficit.

Members of the scheme, one of a number operated by the company, were told that the trustees of the DB scheme are obliged to submit a funding proposal to the Pension Board by November 30, 2010 which will result in “a significant reduction in pension scheme benefits”.