A union has called off a planned strike by journalists at STV as talks were held in a dispute over pay.
National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members at the broadcaster were set to walk out for 24-hours on Tuesday but the union announced on Monday afternoon this has been cancelled.
The NUJ said in a statement: “Following extensive talks (on Monday) aimed at resolving the current pay dispute at STV the NUJ has agreed to postpone (Tuesday’s) planned strike pending talks resuming later this week.”
They said a strike planned for May 1 remains in place.
NUJ members at the broadcaster walked out for 24-hours last month in the pay dispute, with picket lines in place outside its offices in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee and members in Edinburgh meeting MSPs outside the Scottish Parliament.
No STV news bulletins ran that day, with the station’s flagship news programme STV News At Six replaced by an episode of outdoors show Sean’s Scotland, fronted by weatherman Sean Batty.
The NUJ is seeking a 6% pay rise for members to “keep pace with inflation” during the cost-of-living crisis, and it claimed their salaries are less than equivalent roles at the BBC or ITV.
The union said STV, which is independent from ITV, offered the 6% increase for the bottom 3% of earners and claimed it cannot afford to pay more.
STV said a proposal involving all staff receiving a bonus was rejected by the union, and the broadcaster described its offer as “fair”.
READ MORE:
- Cairngorm railway shut for safety reasons for many months
- Former Shetland teacher sentenced for sexual abuse of six schoolboys
Prior to the strike last month, Nick McGowan-Lowe, NUJ national organiser, said: “Our members across Scotland produce the award-winning journalism that is the flagship of the STV brand and are only asking for their pay to keep track with inflation.”
An STV spokesperson said: “STV remains open to further dialogue but the NUJ’s claim for an above inflation pay increase of 6% – nearly twice the current level of inflation – is unrealistic and unaffordable.
“In this economic climate, the offer made is both fair and financially responsible and is already being paid to over 85% of our colleagues across the rest of the business, including news colleagues in the Bectu union who voted to accept the award.
“Our enhanced offer, which included confirmation of a bonus for all STV employees, as we won’t agree a separate deal for NUJ members, was rejected by the NUJ.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here