Staff at The Herald group of newspapers in Glasgow are to be given details of the new contracts on offer, including pay bands, today.
Earlier this month, all 250 journalists at The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times were made redundant and told to re-apply for around 210 “new” jobs. It is understood that the re-written job descriptions will have additional demands in terms of hours worked and provision of content for websites as well as the newspaper titles.
One strong rumour is that the sub-editing operations at the group’s three titles are to be merged into one, comprising one group subbing chief, two deputies and 35 subs, with the possible loss of around 20 subbing posts.
Among the prominent SJA members affected by the management moves are Doug Gillon, the veteran athletics correspondent of the Herald, winner of the specialist correspondent and regional correspondent awards at the 2006 SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, Michael Grant, the chief football writer for the Sunday title, and Jonathan Jobson, sports editor of the Sunday Herald.
Paul Holleran, the Scottish Organiser of the National Union of Journalists, has been in negotiations with Herald management. He told allmediascotland.com: “There has been a lot of movement, but we are still trying to influence the final position.
“Everything is still so fluid, including job numbers and descriptions.”
At the mass meeting, being held at 3pm, staff should also hear about how the redundancy process will operate.
More on sports desk job cuts:
Mair and Knight leave Telegraph; Buckley goes from Obs
Chadband among casualties in Derry Street
Martin Johnson latest to leave the Telegraph
Fraser quits Independent to return to Middlesex
Express to cut more than 70 jobs
Publishers pull the plug on two football blogs
Harry Harris to leave Express
Sports desk at centre of Telegraph concern
Brighton’s weekly sports paper to close
NUJ chapel protest at Independent‘s sports cuts
Mossop and Phillip leave Telegraph
Click here to see a timeline of journalism job losses