The announcement was made this morning and NUJ representatives will meet the company on Thursday.

The NUJ’s Head of Publishing Barry Fitzpatrick said: “The scale of today’s announcement will have come as a massive shock to our members at the Independent.

“Journalists’ confidence in management at the moment is shaky at best, and far below what we would expect when entering into negotiations over any major restructuring.

“The public boardroom disputes have done little to reassure staff or readers concerned about the future of the titles.

“The NUJ will meet the company on Thursday.

“We need to see clear guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies. We will also be looking for plans from management as to how the health and safety of staff who remain will be protected. Our members already complain about their workloads and, as the company attempts to produce quality papers on just three quarters of the staff, the company has a duty of care to protect its employees from work related stress and we will hold them to account over their responsibility.”

18 November 2008

 

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