Telegraph backs off over new working practices

Journalists at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph suspended three days of strike action this month after a threat to impose new rotas and compulsory Saturday working for production staff was withdrawn.

The rotas will now be renegotiated with the NUJ media union, while journalists who volunteer for more flexible working patterns will receive a £5,000 payment.

The move came just a week after the newspapers' editors, Will Lewis and Patience Wheatcroft, said there was "no chance" of the NUJ's "ridiculous" demands being met.

However, the union has warned that the strike has only been suspended rather than cancelled.

"The strike has been postponed for four weeks while we go back to the company and talk in more detail about the issues that remain," said NUJ father of chapel (union rep) John Carey. "There's still a long way to go for us."

The attempted changes to working practices are part of the Telegraph titles' move from Canary Wharf to Victoria, which has also resulted in imposed redundancies.

"We are a recognised union and we have a house agreement," Carey said. "If there are going to be significant changes to work practices, there has to be some reward for that. What we are making a stand about is defending the quality of journalism that the Telegraph produces."