FT journalists hold work stoppage

Financial Times journalists held a work stoppage on Tuesday to protest a lack of advancement in talks with management about a new contract, reports Andrew Pugh of the Press Gazette in London.

Pugh writes, “Around 250 journalists at the Financial Times will stop work for two hours this afternoon after talks over ongoing pay dispute failed to result in a deal.

“NUJ members at the FT held talks with senior management at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) yesterday but they failed to resolve the dispute.

“A strike ballot was held last month in protest at a pay deal which the union attacked as ‘deeply divisive and an attack on union collective bargaining’.

“The minimum increase is two per cent for all staff, with many getting 2.5 per cent.

“The total editorial pay pot is understood to be rising b 3.5 per cent but management at the company propose using much of this to reward particular staff. This move seen by the union as an attack on the collective bargaining arrangement contained within the FT house agreement.

“Today journalists will stop work for two hours for a mandatory chapel meeting at 3pm which is expected to involve around 250 journalists.”

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