NUJ wins redundancy pay for Daily and Sunday Sport staff

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Staff who were fired suddenly when the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers were closed in April will now be able to each claim £3,200 in pay from the redundancy payments office.

There was no consultation over redundancies when publisher Sport Media Group went into administration, but a campaign launched shortly after by the National Union of Journalists has won eight weeks' pay for those fired, capped at £400 per week. The redundancy pay allotment totals £198,400.

Of the 74 staff let go, 62 were represented by the NUJ 's campaign - including non-journalistic staff who were not members of a union. Around 20 of those 62 were editorial staff, with more than half of those NUJ members.

There were 12 members of staff who the union refused to represent after a chapel vote due to their involvement in redundancy plans prior to the closure of the newspapers and in the closure itself, or who were "vocally anti-NUJ", according to Midlands and North

assistant organiser

Lawrence Shaw.

"We had to draw a line. We took each case on a merit basis and there some who the union refused to represent. They were managers and senior managers, including people who had been involved in redundancy plans at the Sport before the closure.

"And it seemed like NUJ members were being targeted specifically for redundancy at the time.

"There was no way we were going to help people like that. They were not suddenly going to get help from the NUJ."

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the NUJ, said it was a "fantastic result" for the union. "I hope this victory also sends a strong message to those companies who choose to shirk their legal obligation to engage in a meaningful consultation process."

The Sunday Sport was purchased shortly after its closure in April by founder David Sullivan, who relaunched the newspaper on 8 May after paying just £50,000 for it.

Sullivan launched the Sunday title in 1986 and the Daily Sport five years later in 1991. He later loaned SMG £1.68 million in 2009 to prevent the publisher from going into administration.

The 2011 closure of the titles was later shown to stem from the refusal of Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell to continue to print them without full payment of debts.