Unions ballot for strike over BBC redundancies

On the front page of NUJ.org today:

Unions announce BBC strike ballot

Unions are to ballot for industrial action across the BBC, following moves by the corporation to push ahead with plans for compulsory redundancies.

The decision to hold a ballot was taken jointly by the NUJ, BECTU and Unite, the three unions representing staff across the BBC.

A strike ballot had been averted in October after managers backed down on plans to begin the process of cutting 2,500 posts without consulting the unions.

However, BBC Vision has now announced that it will begin selecting people for compulsory redundancy, despite the fact that over 300 people have expressed an interest in voluntary release.

Unions have criticised the decision to begin the compulsory redundancy process without first agreeing on the release of volunteers, potentially putting a large number of people at risk of losing their jobs.

NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: “We’ve been very clear with the BBC that any attempt to force through compulsory redundancies will result in a ballot for industrial action. Our members are already deeply concerned about the strain they will be put under as a result of the BBC’s cutbacks. Now management is piling on the pressure by leaving thousands of people uncertain about whether they will have a job in the new year, even though it appears that many of these cuts could be dealt with through voluntary redundancies.

“When a negotiated settlement is within reach it is madness for BBC to force experienced staff out the door. At a time when the BBC needs top-class management it is suffering from poor decision making.

“We urge the BBC to rethink its decision which makes a mockery of the voluntary redundancy process and to come back to the table to discuss how we can deal with these changes without resorting to industrial action.”

22/11/07

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Email sent out to all BBC staff 6pm last night:

Dear Colleagues,

Today the unions (NUJ, BECTU and UNITE) have decided to ballot for strike action over the issue of compulsory redundancies. In recent weeks we conducted an exercise within the areas impacted by job reductions to ask for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy to help minimise the number of compulsory redundancies. The initial results are encouraging, particularly the positive response within News where compulsory redundancies are now less likely and in Vision, where the current flow of work has clearly diminished, we are hopeful that more people will volunteer. So it's difficult to understand why the unions are now balloting for strike action when the likely level of compulsory redundancies has significantly reduced.

Our audiences want us to focus on delivering distinctive and quality programmes that they can access any time, any where. That means some fundamental changes inside the BBC to reshape how we produce and deliver content, making the best use of our resources and of licence fee payers' money. But change of the scale we're going through is very difficult, particularly the human consequences. Dealing with job cuts and the personal impact on individuals is something that we would really like to avoid but we have no choice - we have to make the savings as the financial position of the BBC is set for the next six years and will not change. We should also bear in mind that the vast majority of staff will not be affected by the proposed job reductions.

We are disappointed that the unions have decided to ballot at this time given the results of the trawl for voluntary redundancies and our strong commitment to retraining, reskilling and redeployment wherever possible. Over the coming weeks and months management within the divisions impacted will try and continue to have constructive dialogue with our unions.

We will keep you posted on developments.

Regards,

Steve

Stephen Kelly

Director, BBC People