STV strikes called off as NUJ members accept pay offer

A dispute at STV which led to news programmes being blacked out is over.

Journalists at the company have voted to accept an improved pay offer.

NUJ members voted 82 per cent in favour of the deal, which includes a pay rise backdated to January and a guaranteed bonus worth between £300 and £500.

STV journalists held two 24 hour strikes - with some famous faces joining their colleagues on the picket line.

The first one-day strike saw newsroom staff on picket lines in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow with a separate demonstration at the Scottish Parliament.

The action saw the cancellation of the evening news and morning bulletins.

Viewers in Scotland were instead shown the news from ITV Border, headquartered in Carlisle.

But a deal was agreed following a second day of strike action on 1 May, the day of the STV shareholder meeting.

Nick McGowan-Lowe, the NUJ’s National Organiser for Scotland said: “This has been a slow and difficult dispute, but we have finally reached a pay offer that has been accepted by our members.

“Our members at STV have secured an improved settlement not just for the newsroom – but also for their other 400 colleagues across STV, who thanks to the solidarity of our members now have not just a guaranteed bonus in July, but also a further, increased potential bonus payable next year."

He added "significant improvements" had also been secured to the maternity and adoption leave terms.

Mr McGowan-Lowe said: "None of this would have been achieved without the solidarity, determination and professionalism of STV’s journalists, who deserve fair pay and respect within the company as the public face of STV’s brand, and the leadership of our workplace reps."

STV said that it was pleased the NUJ had "accepted that an increase of 6% was unrealistic and unaffordable".

A spokeswoman added: "The structure of this award was always designed to deliver a higher increase to colleagues on lower salaries who are benefitting from an above inflation increase."

The two strikes blacked out all Scottish news programmes and affected STV’s news website but network programmes and commercials were broadcast as normal.