ACAS steps into Opera dispute

Industrial action at English National Opera has been postponed to allow conciliation talks.

Management at ENO accepted an invitation from BECTU to hold peace talks at government conciliation agency ACAS, after members voted for strike action.

Over 90% of BECTU members at the company voted for industrial action in a dispute over threatened redundancies. From the 150 members balloted, 80 voting papers were returned.

Discussions at ACAS are expected to be scheduled some time in week beginning April 28, and in the meantime ENO management have agreed to conduct a trawl for redundancy volunteers among the workforce.

Negotiations on the job cuts, which BECTU fears could close nearly a third of the company's 482 staff, reached deadlock over the union's insistence that there should be no compulsory redundancies.

Industrial action has not been completely ruled out by the union, and decisions about stoppages will depend on the outcome of the ACAS talks.