Almost 100 former Irish Press journalists are to receive more than £2,000 each in holiday pay arrears, due since the newspaper group ceased publishing in 1995. The arrears will be paid by the taxpayer, through the insolvency section of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment because their employer, Irish Press Newspapers Ltd, was placed in receivership.
The arrears arose out of an unusual practice at the Irish Press, where employees were not entitled to annual paid leave until they had been working at least a year for the company. When it closed, the journalists assumed the arrears had been included in their severance packages. It was only when SIPTU and the Irish Print Union discovered a discrepancy in payments and made claims for their members that journalists also put in a claim.
So far 98 journalists out of 170 have sought arrears and the Employment Appeals Tribunal has accepted in principle that journalists were entitled to payment, subject to presenting evidence to the tribunal. A total of 64 journalists, represented at yesterday's hearing by the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Mr Eoin Ronayne, were awarded seven weeks' holiday pay.
However, this will only go automatically to the 36 present. Journalists who were absent can attend the hearing, which continues today, or make arrangements through the NUJ to process their claim.
The chairman of the tribunal, Mr Dermot MacCarthy SC, described the practice of withholding annual leave for a year as "quite unusual" and said he had never encountered it before. He also expressed surprise that so many journalists had been unaware that they had not received full holiday payment.
He said that those seeking the arrears included well-known journalists who wrote knowledgeably about financial matters. "One would have thought that people advising the nation on its financial affairs would be aware of their own rights," he said.
The tribunal awarded seven weeks' holiday pay to the journalists, on the basis that they were owed six weeks from 1994 and none of them had taken any holiday leave before the newspaper closed in May 1995. However, the cap on EAT awards is £300 a week, whereas most would have been entitled to at least £400 on the basis of their salaries at the time.
Two of the claimants had died and Mr McCarthy said that their widows could apply for the arrears. A small number of claimants also received awards for other leave days due.
The hearings continue today. The payments will not be made by the department until all the claims have been processed.