Express settlement may bring work back in-house

A lengthy anti-outsourcing campaign at Express Newspapers seems to have made progress as part of a new pay deal negotiated by the NUJ journalists’ union.

Although the deal’s pay increase of 3% (backdated to 1 January) is well below those awarded recently at some other national newspapers, staff on the Daily Express and Daily Star believe that they will also benefit considerably from a new management commitment to discuss bringing work back in-house.

Deadlock over this year’s pay agreement had prompted the union to call a 24-hour strike earlier this month – the first on a national newspaper for 18 years – with NUJ national newspapers organiser Barry Fitzpatrick commenting that journalists had “had enough of poor pay and unfair treatment at the hands of their employer. We’ve tried to make the company see sense but it has come to nothing.”

With a second strike called for 18 April, last-minute discussions between NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear, Express Newspapers proprietor Richard Desmond and the company’s editorial director finally achieved a breakthough.

The union believes that bringing outsourced work (such as the City news section) in-house will save the company money, as well as providing greater job security. It wants any savings made to be ploughed into improved pay and benefits, and is calling for progress on “in-housing” within 10 weeks.