PRH to resume talks with unions

Penguin Random House is to resume discussions on a house agreement with the National Union of Journalists and Unite, despite its announcement to staff last week that stalled negotiations had brought their formal relationship to an end.

In a joint statement issued this afternoon (Wednesday 21st December), PRH UK c.e.o. Tom Weldon, Fiona Swarbrick of the NUJ and Louisa Bull of Unite confirmed house agreement talks were now back on.

“Penguin Random House UK, Unite and the NUJ held a positive meeting today at which all parties agreed to continue talks with the aim of securing a new collective agreement for the combined Penguin Random House UK business,” the statement said.

“While some elements of the agreement in discussion are yet to be finalised and agreed upon, we are pleased to be working together to resolve these final points and come to a mutually acceptable position.”

Over 140 authors, including Meg Rosoff, David Almond and Mary Hoffman, had signed a call for the publishing house to reconsider its decision to end its formal relationship with the unions.

Negotiations between unions and management had stalled over differences in redundancy provision between the Penguin and Random House, and how to resolve this to achieve one universal house agreement. In the battle of arguments between the two sides, Weldon told staff there had been "factual inaccuracies" in the unions' presentation of the case while the use of redundancy terms to support a staff petition to take the issue to the Central Arbitration Commission was "misleading." In turn, the unions accused the company of being "disingenuous" in its approach to the negotiation.