'Observer' staff in dispute over pay

MARY BRAID

Observer journalists have gone into formal dispute with the newspaper's management, which they accuse of attempting to "derecognise the union by stealth".

A row broke out at the end of annual pay negotiations involving the editor, Andrew Jaspan, and the managing editor, Stephen Pritchard. Staff representatives were informed that a 3.82 per cent agreed rise would not apply to journalists who joined the paper recently under new contracts. In effect, 20 per cent of the journalists would no longer be covered by collective bargaining by the National Union of Journalists.

Last night journalists were predicting industrial action if Mr Jaspan and Peter Preston, the paper's editor-in-chief, did not reverse the decision. "No-one can believe what is being attempted. This is the Observer, great liberal newspaper and champion of human rights," said a staff member.

n The appointment of new editors at the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator continued to reverberate through senior ranks yesterday.

Media watchers predicted that Veronica Wadley, the Daily Telegraph's number two, who left after the appointment of Charles Moore as editor this week, would soon either emerge as deputy to her old boss, Max Hastings, at the London Evening Standard, or become number three on the Daily Mail.

Saturday Story, page 19