THE STAFF OF the Sunday Tribune have held an open picket at the Irish headquarters of Independent News & Media, the majority shareholder in the paper, asking it to provide ex gratia redundancy payments.

The 43 workers employed at the paper are to receive their final paycheques today, ahead of being made redundant next Monday.

Though each is receiving statutory redundancy, workers – backed by the National Union of Journalists – are appealing to INM, which holds a 29.9 per cent share in the Tribune, to make provisions for extra redundancy payments, “as a result of the decision to pull the plug on funding for the newspaper”.

The paper went into receivership earlier this month after INM decided to withdraw its funding from the paper, which had recently moved into the company’s headquarters after vacating its own building on Dublin’s Baggot Street.

The demonstration, at Independent House on Talbot Street, was attended by staff from other newsrooms, including that of RTÉ and the Sunday Times, as well as the paper’s founding editor, Vincent Browne of TV3.

The NUJ’s Irish secretary, Séamus Dooley, called on INM to treat the Tribune’s staff as it had treated those of the Irish Daily Star Sunday, in which it had a 50 per cent stake, and whose staff were offered ex gratia payments when the publication closed in January.

He also appealed to staff of other newsrooms to keep their colleagues from the Tribune in mind when any other journalistic jobs became vacant.