MORE THAN 6 CONSECUTIVE DAYS

• BECTU proposed an amendment to the new conditions of service document which would describe the scheduling of more than 6 days in succession as "exceptional", and management agreed to introduce a process of consultation with individuals whenever the limit was to be exceeded.

  Management however insisted that they must reserve the right to schedule more than six consecutive days where appropriate, but would always observe the Working Time Directive stipulation of 2 days off in 14 unless a need for "continuity of service" or "unforseen circumstances" prevented this.

LATE NIGHT/EARLY MORNING TRANSPORT

• A call by the union side for the planned 2245-0630 window to be extended on Sundays due to patchy availability of public transport was turned down by management on the grounds that they would entertain individual variations from the national rules, but not blanket ones.

  Management accepted that staff were entitled to make requests for transport outside the window times, which would be considered by line managers.

  Both sides agreed that any changes currently being sought by the union at national level would be incorporated into the London Ops rules on LNEMT.

  Management confirmed that their new rules were not intended to exclude car users from the right to transport to or from work within the window, and there was some discussion of the practical problems staff might experience with the proposed system of authorisation, now that PIN numbers are required to book taxis.

  BECTU warned that the introduction of the normal 30 mile taxi limit to Post-Production could still be a problem, and reserved the right to raise it at subsequent meetings.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES TO SCHEDULES

• London Operations outlined their objectives in proposing changes which appeared to the union to put a new burden on staff to call the office, even on days off, to check for changes in their rotas.

  According to management, the current process by which schedulers would call individuals and discuss changes was laborious, and often failed to achieve a confirmation that the change had been understood and accepted.

  New technology like SMS text-messaging to mobile phones, and home e-mail, would they hoped reduce the time that schedulers spend on communicating changes.

  The original wording, which put the burden of responsibility for being aware of changes entirely on the individual, could be changed into a joint responsibility between staff and schedulers, said management.

  Union reps pointed out that, in addition to the expectation of staff that they should have time free from interruption by the office, especially on days of leave, there was a problem with any system that failed to confirm that individuals knew about changes, especially in OBs.

  Management accepted broadly that there were occasions when staff could justifiably be incommunicado, even if they had a BBC-provided mobile, but noted that some staff were quite willing to accept changes, even while on leave.

  The union side said that any revised wording would have to be clear that:

  • Genuine failures where staff did not receive notification of changes would not result in disciplinary measures;
  • There are circumstances when staff have a legitimate right to privacy being respected;
  • The transmission of a message should not automatically be taken as proof of receipt, whatever the medium.

  Management undertook to reconsider the wording of the new conditions of service.

EXTRA RESPONSIBILITY REWARD (ad hoc acting)

• At the previous directorate meeting, management had said that they might be willing to balance the proposed abolition of ERR payments, by increases in the numbers of senior staff in categories where high levels of acting took place.

  Now, they believed that the analysis required to identify levels of acting might take up to two weeks to complete, but confirmed that they would present the union with statistics, and where appropriate, proposed increases in the number of senior posts.

  BECTU agreed that, if talks continued into January, reps would be anxious to discuss the outcome of the acting analysis with management.

SOUND AND VISION TESTROOM CLOSURE

• According to management's figures, only one of the three people in S&V Testroom now faced a transfer into Technical Services. New staff were being recruited for Kendal Avenue Maintenance, and IT and Virtual Reality work.

  Union reps raised the question of a backlog of maintenance work which had been building up over two years since the last reorganisation of stores. Members in the area, they said, were not confident that the remaining testrooms would cope with the extra work passed to them once S&V closed at TV Centre.

  Management agreed to consider the extent of the "red label mountain", and devise a plan to deal with it. Further talks were also promised locally on the interface between Engineering and Lighting, which will be affected by the reduction in Engineering staffing.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS

• Union reps explained the concerns that had led to the TA job description and training programme being part of the dispute. They said that the changes in Studio Engineering, Comms, and OBs, particularly the reduction in numbers of engineers, would lead to TAs being asked to accept significant responsibilities filling in for more qualified staff.

  If that scenario was correct, said the union, the TA job description was too broad, with knowledge of each specialist discipline too shallow, and the proposed two-week training course was too short.

  Management explained that they envisaged that the new batch of TAs currently being recruited would have to work in a variety of areas, and would not specialise until much later in their careers. London Ops did not want to restrict their mobility by locking them into one discipline too early, but did support the idea of them eventually moving into more senior roles within distict job categories, with further training as appropriate.

  BECTU emphasised that members' concerns about the TAs were entirely professional, and that an extension of their initial formal training, and an early identification of "horses for courses" who worked regularly in a specific department, would be welcome.

  Management promised to consider the points that had been raised.

OB SITE SUPERVISORS

• Management had already promised that the proposed Days conditions of service for this category (most of them currently Rigger/Driver Supervisor) would be dropped if an overall agreement was reached on the London Ops reorganisation, and the new post would continue on Hours conditions.

  The union expressed concerns about the job description, which required obligatory multi-skilling on a much broader basis than the present voluntary arrangements whereby some Rigger/Drivers undertake straightforward sound and camera work.

  Now that these duties were to be extended and formally incorporated into the job description, the union believed it was time for the pool of Rigger/Drivers to be recognised as technical, rather than purely manual, staff, and to be re-graded accordingly.

  There were also complaints from union reps that the training offered so far to Rigger/Drivers had been patchy, and would need to be significantly improved.

  Management noted the union's points and promised to reflect on them.

CONCLUSION

Significant progress was made at the meeting, both in union and management more clearly understanding each other's position on the disputed items, and in some cases agreeing measures which would resolve the differences.

However, the meeting had been deliberately limited to those issues that both sides believed should be capable of consensual resolution. The three big issues still in dispute, compulsory redundancies, long day and short break payments, and travel payments, have not yet been resolved.

Management are expected to make some announcement this week about the status quo, should the talks look constructive enough to continue into January, beyond the threatened date when the whole package could be imposed without agreement.

Until then, union reps cannot predict whether some of the promising lines of discussion opened at today's meeting will ever reach fruition. Management did, though, appear keen to reach an acceptable agreement on these, and the big three issues, if at all possible.

Issued 18.12.00
Related pages
BBC reorganisation 2000 - home page

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