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No agreement on conditions or redundancies - union to ballot for action. 19.10.00
At the final meeting between London Operations management and BECTU and AEEU representatives, the unions registered a failure to agree on proposals for job cuts and changes in conditions of service.
Over the course of six previous directorate level meetings, the number of compulsory redundancies had been gradually reduced from a potential 260 to less than two dozen, some of whom could expect to secure new posts as part of a management and administration reorganisation.
Early in the discussions the unions had warned of major problems with plans to scrap the 10s/12s agreements in Studios and OBs, and the redefinition of base area as anywhere within 25 miles of TV Centre.
Notwithstanding these reservations, the unions had been willing to discuss a draft conditions of service document produced by management, and were due at the meeting to respond in detail to the proposals.
The meeting also dealt with the redundancy situation, and a major upset occurred when management announced that everyone in Studio Management would, after all, be made redundant, rather than transferring to production departments as had been hoped.
REDUNDANCY TRAWL
BECTU asked if opportunities were on offer for transfers to BBC First, which might alleviate the redundancy problem, and management said they would consider this and respond.
Team Leader interviews would be held first, followed by boards for the remaining Allocator positions. Any current staff who did not secure positions would then be able to seek redeployment elsewhere in the department. Any who accepted posts at a lower grade would keep their current salary on a standstill basis.
Staff were now facing compulsory redundancy, with notice likely to be issued at the end of October.
London Operations had been prepared to underwrite the redundancy costs of the staff for a year, had they been transferred to production, but despite this added incentive, no production area felt it could take on the burden of a section which, apparently, could not cover its ongoing costs.
The union expressed shock at the announcement, and pointed out that there had been no detailed discussion of the economic decision to close the section since everyone, including London Ops management, had been hoping for a successful transfer to production.
Management agreed to provide financial data and utilisation statistics so that the union could consider counter-arguments to the department's closure.
STUDIO ENGINEERING
Management originally suggested that they would move the three staff currently in Sound & Vision, but after internal management consultation had decided to select three staff from the overall pool of TV Centre engineers.
Union reps once again pointed out the pitfalls of the closure, and predicted that the move would simply put more strain on other maintenance areas which were already overworked.
The union also queried the proposed move from UPA1 to UPA2 for Studio Engineering staff.
CONDITIONS OF SERVICE
Management had indicated at an earlier meeting that they might be willing to introduce some payment for days over 13 hours, and suggested two alternatives:
The union said that the change from 12 to 13 hours as the definition of a long day was unacceptable, and neither of the management's alternative payment systems would satisfy members.
When asked to offer an opinion about their relative merits, reps suggested that 1T beyond 13 hours was probably better than the 0.5T option.
Feelings about the issue had been heightened by the separate, cross-BBC, announcement that lunch allowances were to be scrapped from January, and evening meal allowances were to be restricted to staff on detached duty, or those working more than 12 hours.
Management rejected the proposal for crediting of sickness absence on public holidays.
The proposal, intended to allay staff fears that they could be held responsible for failing to show up if their hours were changed without proper notification, was rejected by management.
Another union proposal for the conditions document to state that more than 6 consecutive turns of duty "should be avoided" was also turned down by management.
In response to union questions, management confirmed that:
Management said that they could not accept any of the proposed changes in the conditions of service document, except those which were straightforward textual corrections.
They wanted to proceed with interviews and redundancy selection, and believed that the agreed procedure for negotiations had now been exhausted.
The unions said that there were still several issues which stood in the way of agreement, and formally registered a failure to agree. They also told management that there was now no alternative to an industrial action ballot, and formal notice of this would be given to the BBC in due course.
Among the points of dispute were:
Management regretted the failure to agree, and said that they had made significant concessions during the talks, in particular the reductions in planned redundancies.
They acknowledged that the new staffing arrangements and conditions of service would put additional burdens on the staff who remain, and could reduce their earnings, but the changes were necessary to achieve the savings targets that had been set.
Management also confirmed that some parts of the new conditions contradicted the national and/or directorate conditions of service, however the union side said that it would be futile to pursue this issue at a national-level meeting, even if the procedures allowed this.
The meeting ended in silence.
CONCLUSION
Despite several weeks of talks, during which a number of genuine concessions were made by management, the package of changes proved too much for the unions to swallow.
Some aspects of the new conditions of service have provoked anger among members, and the shock announcement that all staff in Studio Management were to be sacked put any agreement on redundancies out of reach.
Management have left most of their concessions on the table, in spite of the failure to agree, so many staff in London Ops can rest assured that there will be no compulsory redundancies in their category.
However, now that the negotiating procedure has been exhausted, management are certain to begin setting up interviews for new jobs, many of them closed boards at the union's request, and will also start to select compulsory redundancies, initially among Radio OB staff.
Staff in Studio Management and the Manchester OB base now face compulsory redundancy, with 5 months' notice likely to be issued at the end of October.
Although the union was willing to approve parts of the boarding process, the failure to agree effectively means that none of the steps being taken to fill jobs or identify redundancies has been accepted.
Many of the job descriptions for new posts have not been finally signed off by the union, and these, along with other issues like the number of Technical Assistants to be employed, are left in limbo.
Ballot forms for industrial action, and action short of industrial action, should be sent out to members within the next ten days. The union is not expecting any reaction from management until the ballot has closed.
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