Ballot backs action in BBC Resources

BECTU members in BBC Resources have voted for a work to rule following the collapse of talks on working time.

More than 83% of the 1,300 members who took part in the ballot voted to take industrial action consisting of a ban on schedules which infringe the statutory breaks laid out in the European Working Time Directive.

A smaller majority of 51% voted in favour of full strike action in response to a question which was added to the ballot paper on the advice of union lawyers.

Under UK labour laws, employers must be given 7 days notice of any industrial action, and the work-to-rule is expected to start on Tuesday August 17.

Read industrial action instruction to members

The legal rest breaks laid out in the Working Time Regulations (the UK implementation of the Directive) include an 11 hour rest between turns of duty, at least one day off in seven, or two in fourteen, and a maximum working week of 48 hours, averaged over 17 weeks.

BECTU members in BBC Resources will now be instructed to stick rigidly to the 11 hour breaks, and to refuse schedules which do not incorporate them.

Members are being asked to insist on one day off after six days work (unless part of a fixed rota pattern agreed with BECTU). This is to avoid the unacceptable situation of working 12 consecutive days that can potentially arise under the Regulations. This element of the action departs from a strict interpretation of the legislation - this is possible because it forms part of a legal industrial action instruction.

Members should note that the 17 week reference period, over which the average 48 hours working week is calculated, is a rolling 17 week period. In other words there is not a series of consecutive reference periods in 17 week blocks starting from a given start date.

Talks on the interpretation of the European Directive broke down in June over two key issues: the compensatory rest owed to workers who infringe their breaks, and the treatment of BBC staff on Days conditions of service, under which no hourly overtime is paid.

Resources management wanted the right to schedule staff to infringe breaks, which the union was willing to accept provided they were given genuine time off work as compensation. However, management insisted that they were entitled to schedule the time off when they chose, even if it coincided with days which would have been off duty anyway.

Staff on Days conditions were, management said, not entitled to any form of paid compensation for infringing their legal rest breaks - a position that the union was unwilling to accept.

A union offer of further talks under the auspices of central BBC management was turned down by BBC Resources.

Since the negotiations ended, Resources have hardened their position by notifying staff that they are covered by a "broadcasters' derogation", which entitles management to ignore most of the limits laid down in the new legislation except the 48 hour maximum week.

The union has challenged this interpretation, saying that there is no blanket exemption for the broadcasting industry, and any infringements of breaks would have to be justified on each occasion, and would be legal only where there was a "need for continuity of production".