ITV in the dock over The Bill cuts

Cost-cutting by ITV has caused Fremantle to propose redundancies on The Bill.

The announcement, which came late yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, puts a significant number of jobs at risk on the independent production for ITV1.

Informal redundancy consultations started today (Friday) at a meeting attended by BECTU Supervisory Official, Tom Bell, local branch officials and production management.

Formal consultations are due to start on 6 February.

Two hour-long episodes of the show are currently screened each week. Management have agreed with ITV that the Bill will be relaunched later this year as a one-hour weekly drama to be broadcast after the 9pm watershed.

Commenting on this week’s very sad news, BECTU Supervisory Official, Tom Bell said: “This is a shameful retreat by ITV which has taken a shortsighted approach to programme output.

“The Bill is a hugely popular continuing drama which has a loyal following and which is made by a loyal team. A 50% cut will disappoint viewers and do harm to those who make The Bill happen.”

ITV has said that money will be saved on production, added to which are plans to use the available slot to boost advertising income from football.

The Bill Branch chair, Roger Stamp, said, “Whilst the production will gain from a primetime slot, an increase in the budget per episode and improved marketing, we cannot overlook the fact that this comes at a high price for those who work on the show. BECTU will be doing its best to mitigate the ill-effects of this reorganisation.”

BECTU officials hope that Fremantle management will be persuaded to look at a number of approaches - including job-sharing and early retirement - to lessen the number of job losses.

The union also hopes that the company will agree to a trawl to identify staff interested in voluntary redundancy when formal talks begin next month.

BECTU, which secured recognition in 2006 to represent staff and freelances on The Bill, will be supporting workers throughout the consultations.

The union’s priorities will be to limit the number of job losses, to avoid compulsory redundancies and to lessen the negative impacts of the reorganisation on the workforce.

BECTU will also want to ensure that the redundancy terms offered to staff are fair and that they reflect the contributions made by staff to a successful production which celebrated its 25th birthday last year.

Today’s statement from ITV and Fremantle remarked that “the multi-award winning programme will be relaunched in a post-watershed slot allowing for a grittier, action filled series in a more traditional home for terrestrial drama.”

The statement made no reference to the job losses which are planned.