The Dublin freesheet Metro has said it will move quickly to pay outstanding wages to its distributors after employees complained of payment delays of several weeks.
Metro's managing director Lee Thompson accepted that some distributors were affected by delays but said the company would work urgently to rectify the problem.
"We wouldn't consciously not pay people who we owe money to. We have 130 distributors, and since we opened five months ago we have had 600-800 people on the books at different times. In the scheme of things, this is a small number of people who are affected. We're talking about a handful," Mr Thompson said.
The process of remunerating Metro's casual distributors is sub-contracted to a UK-based company, which pays them a flat rate of €12 per hour by bank transfer. The company says the delays are due to "administrative issues", with employees not supplying adequate bank account or personal details for the transaction to be made. "There's a myriad of bureaucratic set-up requirements that each merchandiser needs to satisfy before they can be paid," said Mr Thompson.
Speaking to RTÉ, one Metro distributor, Miguel Reyes Fernandez, said he had been paid once but was owed about €900 for his work. "I have to pay rent, I have to buy food, I have to pay bills. I am working for free," he said.
Metro, a joint venture between Metro International, Associated Newspapers Ltd and The Irish Times, was launched last October.