Ballot on BBC job cuts

Members in BBC London studios and OBs are holding a consultative ballot on compulsory redundancies.

The poll comes after London Operations management refused to invite volunteers to step forward for 262 planned redundancies. Approval for the ballot was given by BECTU's BBC Divisional Committee on July 19.

Although negotiations on the job cuts, which result from Greg Dyke's review of BBC Resources, are at an early stage, negotiators believed that the threat of compulsory redundancy was serious enough to justify an immediate ballot.

As well as cutting more than 25% of staff in Studios and OB, management have also proposed new conditions of service which could dramatically reduce overtime and other earnings. These will affect all of London Operations, including Post Production and Graphics, Visual Effects, and Costume Store. Although the consultative ballot is being sent only to members in Studios and OBs, it includes a question on the new conditions.

London Operations has a savings target of £12m a year, half of it from job cuts and the condition of service changes. Studios and OBs have, according to management, been trading at a loss, and are expected to balance their books or face more drastic cuts.

Greater use of freelance labour, and reduced earnings for permanent staff, are two of the key measures planned by management in order to reach their targets.

Local discussions in Studios and OBs are due over the next four weeks to clarify the detail of changes in job descriptions, local agreements, and working practices.

A further meeting with London Ops management is due after the consultative ballot closes on 14 August.

18/7/00

To: All Members in Studios and OBs

Dear Colleague,

Consultative Ballot on Redundancies in Studios and OBs.

With this letter you will find a ballot form, asking whether you accept the management plan to close posts and select staff for compulsory redundancy. You are also asked to indicate if you believe that a full industrial action ballot should be run in an effort to oppose the cuts in jobs and to force management to accept volunteers. There is also a document setting out some of the details of the management proposals.

Talks on the 262 planned redundancies across studios and OBs began only a week ago, and normally your representatives would not expect to run any sort of ballot until progress had been made in the negotiations. However, a major obstacle has emerged at the outset of the talks - management flatly refuse to invite volunteers to step forward, and are insisting that staff will have to go through a selection process for compulsory redundancy.

The union has pointed out that many volunteers may exist in some sections, and has warned management that even if there were no volunteers, it will be impossible in many areas to run any kind of fair selection process. Few of the line managers know all their staff well, and in some cases appraisals have not been carried out for years.

Despite these arguments, London Ops management want to press ahead with selection. In these circumstances, it looks likely that the redundancy talks will grind to a halt within weeks. The union needs to know if you are prepared to make a stand in favour of volunteers and against compulsion.

The proposals on conditions of service are also a serious cause for concern because Resources has already told us as part of the pay talks that they would be tabling new conditions of service in October. It does not seem likely that London Ops management would agree to spend weeks negotiating new conditions of service only for them to be torn up when the new Resources conditions are tabled in the autumn. It is very likely that this is a dry run for the rest of Resources. This makes these meetings even more important since what we end up with here may be the new conditions of service for Resources.

There are of course other issues at stake in the negotiations - the scale of the cuts and the reorganisation of job descriptions - and management may well be willing to make concessions of some of these points. However, the threat of over 200 compulsory redundancies is so severe that your representatives believe that members should be able to make their feelings known to management forcefully and quickly, and that's why this ballot is being run so early.

We hope that a resounding rejection of compulsory redundancies will force management to reconsider accepting volunteers. If the management's attitude cannot be changed, many unwilling victims, who are perfectly competent in their jobs, will be receiving notice of dismissal as soon as October.

It could be you.

Please use the ballot paper to let the management know what you think. It must be returned by Friday 11th August. There are no firm plans for the form of industrial action at the moment - decisions on that will wait until the full legal ballot is run, if that's what members vote for. As well as the ballot form, you'll find more details of the overall cuts package in this mailing.

BECTU is recommending you to oppose the cuts and vote in favour of industrial action if the management insist on no volunteers.

Vote Yes

The next step is a series of local meetings at which your branch committee will be trying to find out the financial justification for these changes and exactly what the changes to local conditions will mean in practice. We will then return to directorate level to see if the management are prepared to give up their position on compulsory redundancies. Your yes vote is essential in ensuring that they do.

Please return your ballot paper in the envelope provided to BECTU Head Office by noon on Monday 14th August. As I will unfortunately be on leave if you have any queries about this ballot please contact Gerry Morrissey at BECTU Head Office or Tony Lennon at Room 360 TVC on 020 8225 9502. For additional information please go to www.bectu.org.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Luke Crawley
Supervisory Official