'Legal threat forced Express jobs climbdown'

The NUJ says a threat of legal action by the union has forced Express Newspapers to cut the number of jobs it wants to axe.
The union says it told Express Newspapers that the numbers involved required workers to be consulted for three months rather than 30 days and the company responded by reducing planned redundancies in London and Glasgow from 106 to 75. This would lower the number of journalists' jobs being cut from 80 to 57.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ deputy general secretary, is a former Express Newspapers union rep and has attended talks with the company this week.
She said: "The reduction in job cuts was only announced after the NUJ had warned the company that they were not following the right procedure. While we welcome the reduced numbers we still don't know how the papers can be produced with the few people who will be left. We want to see some proper plans and we want guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies."
So far, the NUJ says, 16 people in London have volunteered for redundancies, five in Glasgow and one in Preston.

'When Desmond bought the Express titles in 2001 I think he thought he was buying Express Dairies as he has been milking us ever since'

Bleak assessment of life on the Express from the NUJ FoC Steve Usher, quoted on the NUJ Left website.
He says: "Richard Desmond’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for journalistic blood demands the sacrifice of a further 96 London jobs from a total of 600 across the Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express, Daily Star Sunday and their associated magazines.
"The Glasgow office is to lose a quarter of its staff – that is 10 from just 40 serving four national titles.
"Initial proposals, full of words like “eliminate” and “review”, indicate that no one is safe. Merging desks between titles and copy-sharing are strong possibilities.
"District reporters look set to be consigned to the history books, replaced by agency copy.
"The 1 January pay review for this year was postponed until 1 June. Then it was postponed completely. On the day we were due to commence pay negotiations for 2010, the company announced its latest cull.
"The NUJ chapel has warned management before that it views these constant cuts with anger. We believe they herald the demise of the Daily Express and Sunday Express as national titles.
"Redundancy exercises have become as regular as Daily Express splashes on the McCanns, or Jordan and Peter Andre front pages in the Daily Star.
"When Desmond bought the Express titles in 2001 I think he thought he was buying Express Dairies as he has been milking us ever since. He has paid himself millions in both salary and pension and then says the company is fighting for survival. I wonder why."

NUJ staff call on Richard Desmond to sell Express titles rather than cut more jobs

NUJ members at Express Newspapers in London have called on their owner Richard Desmond to sell the papers to a new owner who will restore their status - or use some of his personal wealth to ride out the financial crisis - rather than axing more jobs.
The journalists made the call in response to company plans to cut nearly 100 jobs - including 70 in editorial.
They passed a motion stating: "This chapel condemns proprietor Richard Desmond's greed-driven plans to slash jobs across all the titles and endanger their future. This chapel demands Richard Desmond use his vast personal fortune to ride out the current recession rather than force his staff to make further sacrifices.
"Alternatively, this chapel calls on Richard Desmond to sell the titles to a proprietor who will restore them to their former status."
Barry Fitzpatrick, NUJ head of publishing, raised Desmond's failed libel action against Tom Bower. He said: "Richard Desmond is reported to have spent £1 million on his recent libel action. That is four times the cost of a pay deal for this year that was negotiated and then taken away because the company said they could not afford it.
"This current exercise at Express newspapers is supposed to save £7 million - but nowhere in it is there any sign of sacrifices by the proprietor."
The NUJ says that for the past two years Richard Desmond has paid himself more than £600,000 per annum. In 2002, he took no salary but £11m was paid into his pension. In 2003 his pay from the Express was £7.7m, while £26m went into his pension. In 2004, his pay was £32.6m plus £4.75m pension. And in 2005, Desmond took no salary but £23m went into his pension. Desmond received £112m in pay and benefits from Express Newspapers from 2001 to 2005 inclusive.
Via NUJ website.

Express Newspapers to axe 70 journalists

Journalism.co.uk reports that Northern & Shell, publisher of Express Newspapers and OK! magazine, has announced plans to make 70 journalists at its newspaper titles redundant.
It says the proposed cuts will involve staff at the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Sunday Star and the group will make 10 further redundancies from elsewhere in the company. According to the NUJ, the company is seeking voluntary redundancies from staff and has entered a consultation period.
"It's inconceivable that they can continue to produce competitive newspapers with the level of staff that will remain if these cuts go through," Barry Fitzpatrick, NUJ head of publishing, told Journalism.co.uk.