REDUNDANT STAFF at the Sunday Tribunealong with journalists from other newspapers staged a solidarity protest yesterday to mark the closure of the newspaper after 30 years.
The protest was held outside the offices of Independent News & Media (INM) on Talbot Street. The company has been funding losses at the newspaper for 20 years, but announced on February 1st it was no longer prepared to do so. The paper ceased publication to see if an investor could be found but none came forward.
The paper employed 43 full-time staff. Because of the nature of the closure, staff are legally entitled to only statutory redundancy from the State’s Insolvency Payment Scheme. It could be six to eight months before they receive their money.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ), which staged the protest, called on INM to make an ex-gratia payment to staff because of the hardship they may face.
Columnist Diarmuid Doyle, who has been with the paper for 20 years, said it was an emotional time for many of them who picked up their last pay cheque yesterday.
“I don’t think anybody was hugely surprised when the axe fell, but there is a bitterness that the INM don’t feel they owe us a single cent in redundancy money.”
The attendance included representatives of virtually all print and electronic media organisations in the city. NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley told the gathering that with the closure of the Sunday Tribune"a light has been extinguished and Irish journalism is significantly diminished".
Mr Dooley said INM chief operating officer Vincent Crowley has agreed to a meeting with the NUJ next week over the subject of redundancy payments.
