Editorial staff at the Belfast Telegraphare balloting for strike action in opposition to a 12-month pay freeze imposed by the newspaper's new parent company, Independent News & Media.
The result of the postal ballot will be known by June 21st. Under British employment law industrial action must then be carried out within 28 days of the ballot result being announced.
The pay freeze is due to run from April 2002 to April the following year. NUJ members at the paper have declined a management request to suspend the ballot pending further talks.
About 90 per cent of the more than 110 editorial staff at the paper are union members.
Editorial staff at another paper within the same company, the London Independent, have voted in favour of industrial action as part of their pay claim.
Journalists at the paper claim they have not had an across the board pay rise above inflation for more than seven years - leading to a serious decline in wage values at the paper.
Union representatives are due to decide whether to pursue industrial action following a meeting with the management of the London Independentnext Wednesday.
No comment was available from Independent News & Media this afternoon.
Independent News & Media paid £300 million sterling (€479 million) for the Belfast Telegraph Group of newspapers from Trinity Mirror in March 2000.
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