Further to news that a staff ballot among NUJ members at ITV would be held after the announcement of 1,000 job losses, the NUJ has issued this release:

“An NUJ strike ballot at ITV Regional News has been called off after union members voted to accept a new agreement with the company over planned cutbacks.

“The new agreement includes further incentives for those people choosing to take voluntary redundancy, as well as a commitment to push back the threat of compulsory redundancies to at least the end of January. This should allow time for further talks in the hope that the number of compulsory redundancies can be pushed down to zero,” the release said.

“There are still concerns around the massive cuts that are being proposed”, said NUJ Broadcasting Organiser Paul McLaughlin, “but we now have an agreement that allows the space for further talks to continue. We also continue to press our case with Ofcom to protect regional news on ITV.”