6.9% deal for lowest-paid

The lowest-paid journalists at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo will get increases of up to 6.9 per cent after the chapel at the Trinity Mirror owned paper agreed a new pay deal.

Members gave a new offer from management the green light after significant improvements were made to the original offer.

All staff will receive a minimum 3 per cent but more will be added to the lowest bands and grades. The lowest-paid weekly senior journalists will see their salaries rise by £1,094 to £17,000. Newly qualified seniors on the dailies will get a 4.2 per cent rise to a new £21,000 rate. Further concessions for new trainees mean they get a £500 increase and will achieve higher pay rates up to six months earlier.

Responding to chapel pressure over the growing practice of staff writing columns and blogs in their own time for no payment, the company said it was not its policy to require journalists to work extra hours without time off in lieu.

The Liverpool settlement follows that at the Trinity Mirror-owned Coventry Telegraph and associated weeklies where the chapel negotiated a deal which will push pay rates up by a minimum of £850 this year in a two-stage arrangement.

The Journalist is published by the National Union of Journalists