Union members accept BBC offer of job talks

Bectu members across the BBC have voted to accept a formula for negotiations on job cuts tabled by the Corporation after a strike.

In three separate ballots, which closed July 4, members have accepted a one-year guarantee of no compulsory redundancies while talks take place on plans to reduce staffing by 4,000, as well as concessions from management on two possible privatisations.

Staff in BBC Broadcast Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary likely to be sold to Australian banking concern Macquarie, have been promised access to a final salary pension scheme broadly comparable to the BBC's, with assurances that other terms and conditions will remain unchanged for at least three years if the company is sold off.

Although more than 9 out of 10 members in Broadcast accepted the guarantees on offer if their company is sold by the BBC, an equally large majority, answering a second ballot question, voted against the principle of privatisation, indicating a strong preference to remain within the BBC if possible.

The proposed sale of another subsidiary, BBC Resources Ltd, which was due to be put on the market after the disposal of BBC Broadcast, will now be deferred for at least two years under the package of concessions tabled at ACAS on May 27.

A large vote in the BBC itself in favour of talks about potential redundancies in more than a dozen divisions opens the way for a series of meetings between the unions and management in July and August, underpinned by a guarantee that no staff can be forced to leave, unless voluntarily, until July 2006.

Bectu will be joined at many of the divisional meetings by the journalists' union NUJ, which agreed to attend discussions without balloting members, and electricians' union Amicus is also expected to participate.

The package of concessions, presented personally by Director-General Mark Thompson to senior union officials on May 27, just four days after a one-day stoppage, paved the path for further talks about job cuts, but left many questions about life after the reorganisation unanswered.

Concerns about the level of job cuts in some areas, and the impact on other staff who may have to pick up the duties of those who go, will now be raised at the divisional level meetings. Managers with direct responsibility for day-to-day activities will be expected to explain how the BBC can continue to function properly with 20% fewer staff.

Bectu has reserved the right to impose work-to-rule industrial action at any time during the round of divisional negotiations if members judge that too many staff are being offered redundancy.

Further strike action has not been ruled out either, having been suspended following the May 23 stoppage. A summit meeting with Mark Thompson has been promised later in the year once the divisional talks have made progress, and if compulsory redundancies are still threatened in spite of efforts to avoid them, the unions could call for more strikes.

(GB/KMcA)