Euro-MP Calls On Trinity Mirror To Honour Agreement With Coventry Employees

4.24.04pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 10th Aug 2005

Trinity Mirror must honour the agreement they made to employees at the Coventry Evening Telegraph last year, according to West Midlands Euro-MP Liz Lynne.

The Liberal Democrat Employment spokesperson in the European Parliament today backed the journalists and photographers at the paper, who have been on strike since the middle of July over pay.

Last year Trinity Mirror agreed to introduce a Matrix scheme which rewards staff for experience and extra skills. This should have been brought in, in April but now the company are indicating it might not be brought in by April 2006.

The company also offered their employees at Coventry a pay rise of 2.75 per cent below the rate of inflation, at 3.3 per cent despite making a profit of £112 million in the first six months of this year. Senior staff working on Coventry's weekly papers get as little as £14,500 a year while trainees at the Evening Telegraph receive less than £12,000 a year.

Speaking today Liz said:

"For an organisation that in the first six months of this year made a profit of over £110 million to offer a salary increase below the level of inflation is unacceptable. It is also unacceptable that the average salary for a journalist at Coventry is nearly £1000 less than their counterparts in Birmingham.

"All the workers are asking for is that Trinity Mirror and Coventry Newspapers honour the agreement they made last year. I hope both sides can negotiate a deal, but part of the reason this has gone as far as it has is down to the lack of trust employees have in the Coventry Newspaper Management. They must win back the trust of their employees by announcing a start date for the new scheme. Until then it is difficult to see how this can be resolved."