There have been several reports this week that a long-standing, group-wide pay freeze at Newsquest has shown signs of thawing. Journalism.co.uk has reported extensively on the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) campaign against the pay freeze and the series of strikes that have taken place at Newsquest titles in the past few months.

So has the pay freeze been lifted? Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as that. Here’s what we know:

• An NUJ update and official has confirmed that a 2 per cent pay increase has been offered at some Newsquest centres;
• The centres that have been confirmed so far are Bradford, York and Darlington;
• The NUJ has not yet returned our calls to confirm what centres, if any, in the south or Scotland have been made an offer;
• Journalism.co.uk has learned that in the current offers, no move to backdating pay has been included;
• The date from which a pay increase would take place – if the offers are accepted – depends on each centre’s “pay anniversary”, a date agreed between NUJ chapels and management when new pay or holiday settlements would be introduced.

A step in the right direction – but there’s more to come on this story…