Staff at the Scotsman are gearing up for strike action as more than 30 jobs look set to go across parent company Johnston Press’s Scottish operation.
The regional newspaper publisher is seeking to cut about 13 jobs on the Scotsman, Scotsman on Sunday and Edinburgh Evening News, and as many 20 more across its portfolio of 28 weekly titles in Scotland.
Johnston Press is looking to make the staff cuts, part of a company wide push to save almost £5m, through voluntary redundancies.
However, so far just two have come forward at the TSPL, which makes it highly likely the company will have to move to compulsory redundancies.
The Scotsman’s chapel of the National Union of Journalists strengthened its warning that compulsory job losses would lead to industrial action, warning of a full blown strike.
“It is the position of this chapel that the threat of any compulsory redundancy will trigger an automatic ballot for strike action,” the chapel said in a statement on Thursday.
As part of the cost-saving measures the company is also understood to be exploring replacing several pages of the Scotsman with “supplied content” from a third party.
The chapels representing Johnston Press’s 28 weekly titles in Scotland have yet to hold their meeting to determine a response to the 20 job cuts.
