Scotsman staff set for strike ballot over production job cuts
Scotsman staff will ballot over strike action after a third of production staff were told they face redundancy.
Publisher Johnston Press intends to cut 12 of the 32 production staff that produce the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, the Edinburgh Evening News, a number of magazines and two weekly newspapers.
Media Guardian reports that as staff were given news of the cuts they received an email asking them to attend a party to “celebrate” the relaunch of the Scotsman print and digital editions, announced yesterday.
Kayt Turner, the mother of the National Union of Journalists' chapel at the publisher of the Scotsman and associated titles, said the chapel was "furious" over the planned cuts and described workloads as already being "intolerable".
It has also emerged that Johnston Press is axing its creative services team, with 30 jobs lost across the country.
A Johnston Press spokesperson said: "We have recently conducted an extensive review of our Creative Services function, both internally and from a third party, which has identified an opportunity to better organise and deliver creative services across Johnston Press. As a result we are proposing to make a number of roles redundant."
The Scotsman's redesign is due to be unveiled on Tuesday (29 September).