BBC Resources ballot begins

An industrial action ballot on the Working Time Directive is due to begin in BBC Resources on 19 July.

The ballot had been held up for a week due to a threat of legal action by Corporation management. The union allowed the BBC one week to lodge a challenge to the ballot, but received no formal notice of legal action.

BECTU members in Resources are being asked to vote for strict observance of the rest breaks laid down in the European legislation. These include an 11 hour break between turns of duty, and one day off in every seven.

The ballot comes after talks on the Working Time Directive with Resources management ended without agreement in June. It is being run as a precaution to prevent the BBC arguing that a union instruction to stick to the legal breaks would be a form of unofficial industrial action.

Union lawyers helped to draft the ballot paper, which now includes a catch-all question asking members to support "strike action", as well as "action short of a strike". Although the union's main tactic is, effectively, a work-to-rule rather than a strike, both questions had to be included in the ballot in case the BBC suspends anyone for sticking to the working time limits, at which point the industrial action would have to be stepped up.

The ballot closes 1200 on Monday 9 August, and if members vote for the work-to-rule, BECTU expects to issue instructions shortly afterwards.

Text of letter sent to BECTU members in BBC Resources with the ballot papers:

19th July 1999

To: All BECTU members in BBC Resources

Dear Colleague

RESOURCES WORKING TIME BALLOT

BECTU has spent more than nine months talking to the BBC about Working Time at national and at directorate level. When the talks with Resources Directorate broke down we offered to go back to national level but Resources declined. We were prepared to offer a reference period of 52 weeks for averaging the 48 hours per week (which Resources initially requested) but in return we wanted paid compensatory rest and any agreement to apply to staff on Days conditions as well as Hours conditions.

In a letter to staff the BBC claim that part of the Working Time legislation known as the 'Broadcast Derogation' applies to all operational categories in Resources Limited and Production Services. BECTU does not agree with this view. We believe that you should not have to work long hours in the studio or on location when management could easily provide a relief crew without affecting the programme in any way. The derogation does not mean that all people employed in the BBC are covered by it at all times. For the derogation to be applied someone would have to be considered absolutely essential to the broadcasting process.

The BBC is trying to say that they can infringe your legal right to at least 11 hours between duties and one day off in 7 or a meal break after 6 hours because your presence is essential to the programme. What they really mean is that they want you to bear the cost in physical terms because they do not want to pay the additional crewing cost to relieve you. The Working Time legislation is health and safety legislation and cost cannot be a reason for not applying it.

We have always recognised the difficulties and the need for flexibility in broadcasting, and were prepared to try and reach an agreement on your behalf that gave the BBC that flexibility. However we believe that the Working Time legislation is intended to improve your working life and should bring you benefits. So in return for flexibility we felt the BBC should give you paid compensatory rest. The purpose of the industrial action is to deny the BBC the right to apply the "Broadcast Derogation" to all staff regardless and to ensure that you get the time off specified in the Act, not in your own free time, but as paid time and that equal treatment will be applied between staff on hours conditions and staff on days conditions.

BECTU believes you should vote "yes" in this ballot and then be prepared to take the following action:

1. take an 11 hour break between turns of duty;
2. always take one day off in 7 unless you are on a fixed rota pattern that has been agreed with BECTU;
3. work no more than an average of 48 hours per week over a 17 week period;
4. unless there was a prior agreement with BECTU do not agree to any "Special Case Derogations" (the broadcast derogation or the foreseeable and unforeseeable surges of activity clauses referred to in the Working Time Directive);
5. Travelling time in excess of your normal home to base, to be treated as Working Time (this is in the BBC Agreed Statement);
6. Standby to be treated as Working Time;
7. Individuals should not sign individual opt outs.

This is an important ballot because the outcome of this dispute will determine what control you have over your working hours for many years to come. It is essential that you vote and vote YES

In the meantime you should be asking your management to confirm how much compensatory rest you are owed since the legislation was implemented on the 1st October 1998. And ask to see the record of your working time and compensatory rest already allocated that they are obliged to have kept since October.

The BBC are trying to infringe your legal right to weekly and daily rest periods and then give you compensatory rest, in your own time and when they say. BECTU believes that if your statutory rights are infringed then you should be given paid time off when it is mutually convenient to you and the BBC. Protect your legal rights and vote yes today.

If you know of anyone who is a member of BECTU who is employed by BBC Resources Ltd or BBC Production Services and has not received a ballot paper please get them to call BECTU on 0171 437 8506.

Yours sincerely