12 New chapel is established at WLR FM in Waterford


A new NUJ chapel has been established at Waterford-based radio stations WLR FM and Beat 102-103. New members have joined the NUJ as a result


of the new chapel, which former Irish Executive Council Cathaoirleach, Damien Tiernan, helped to establish. Damien is chairperson of the Irish South East Branch and it was in that capacity he


helped to establish the new chapel. An acting MOC has also been appointed by the chapel to liaise with the Irish Office on any issues. WLR FM and Beat 102-103 were owned by the Landmark Media group, whose newspapers, web sites and radio stations were purchased by The Irish Times in July. The chapel was established before the sale was agreed.


Compromise breaks deadlock in Celtic Media pay talks


Journalists at Celtic Media have voted in favour of a compromise reached with management via the Workplace Relations Commission’s Conciliation Service. The company owns The Anglo-Celt, Connaught Telegraph, Westmeath Independent, Westmeath Examiner, and Meath Chronicle. The NUJ had been seeking full pay restoration, albeit phased, to cuts that our members had incurred during the recession. However, the company argued inability to pay, which combined with the proposed takeover of the business by INM, led to lengthy delays to the talks. However, after INM and Celtic Media agreed


that the sale of the latter to the former would not proceed, WRC conciliation (which began before the INM overtures) resumed. As part of the WRC agreement, the company committed itself to enter discussions with the union in September 2019, with a view to beginning pay restoration in January 2020, with the aim of achieving full restoration as soon as possible. If there are any potential financial blocks that would prevent this from proceeding, the company has agreed to raise them immediately with the union. For their part, the journalists have agreed to co-


operate with new digital publishing technology, including page make-up in the newsroom. It was agreed that the primary purpose of editorial is to write and produce copy, that templates would be used to speed up the process and that pre-press support would be available as a back-up. The company will provide full training on the systems. As an interim measure, pending talks on full pay


restoration, the company has agreed to pay a total of €1,000 to each journalist. Half of this was


issued in July this year in the form of One4All vouchers and another €500 in the vouchers will be issued next July. Furthermore, the company has agreed to


provide all journalists with mobile phones from October 1st this year, which will replace existing mobile phones and allowances. Celtic Media has also agreed to re-enter talks about a house agreement. Irish Organiser, Ian McGuinness, thanked the


FOCs of the five chapels for the work and support in getting to the point where a compromise agreement was reached: “Without local reps to co-ordinate the long-running negotiations, and feedback information from our members, it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve this agreement. It goes to prove that if you are organised in your workplace you can achieve results for your members.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20