Seven former journalists who worked for Ireland's now-defunct Sunday Tribune have received payments between them of nearly €160,000 (£140k).
The National Union of Journalists fought a two-year battle for compensation following the paper's closure in February 2011.
At the time, staff received only statutory entitlements. Casuals and freelances who were deemed to be self-employed were told they were not entitled to any payment.
But the NUJ took up their case, arguing that journalists said by the publisher to be freelancers were really employees and were therefore entitled to annual leave pay, public holiday pay and written terms of employment.
Ireland's rights commissioner service agreed and the union won all the cases. An 18-month delay in securing payment then occurred because of inadequate resourcing at the country's department of social protection. Now they have their money.
The NUJ's Irish secretary, Séamus Dooley, welcomed the victory but expressed concern at the delay in paying out. "At one stage it was far from certain that our members would even receive their money but the NUJ's persistence paid off in the end," he said.
This decision will doubtless be noted with interest by staff and freelances who work for one of the Tribune's former rivals, the Sunday Business Post, which went into examinership yesterday.
Source: NUJ
