Working Time Directive delayed at BBC

The BBC's unions have agreed to a one month delay in the introduction of the Working Time Directive, originally sheduled for January 1 1999.

The postponement was accepted by BECTU, NUJ and AEEU on the understanding that BBC management would present new proposals during January, aimed at breaking the impasse reached in discussions about the new statutory breaks contained in the Directive.

Unions are planning a joint summit meeting on January 20th, when representatives from around the country will assess the BBC's final proposals on scheduling arrangements for permanent, short contract, and freelance staff working for the Corporation.

Until the postponement was agreed, the unions and management were heading for a clash in early January over the BBC's plans for compensation of staff who are not given an 11 hour break between duties, or one day off in seven. Management wanted to schedule the resulting "compensatory rest" at times that suited them, including days that were already scheduled off.

Unions believe that compensatory rest is a legal entitlement, and should be treated like normal leave, to be taken at times chosen by individual staff. On the original timetable, where the Directive was due to come into force at the BBC at New Year, the unions were poised to issue instructions to members to stick rigidly to the limits laid out in the Directive, as a way of forcing the BBC to reach an acceptable agreement.

Chances of an agreement being reached now depend on the contents of a new document being drafted by management, which is expected to reach the unions in the second week of January.

Apart from the argument over compensatory rest, unions and management have agreed on the interpretation of most other parts of the Directive. Unions were willing to agree to a 52 week period over which the 48 hour maximum week would be calculated, and the BBC accepted that exemptions from this limit should be tightly restricted. Similarly, management agreed not to invoke an opt-out for location work, and promised that freelance and short-contract staff would be sheduled in line with the limits of the Directive.

However, none of these agreed parts of the directive can come into effect without a parallel agreement on compensatory rest, and after the meeting on January 20th, the unions could still be in a position where the BBC's proposals are unacceptable.