Ballot on new BBC Resources offer
Members in BBC Resources London Operations are voting on revised reorganisation proposals from management.
Ballot papers were due to be sent early this week (w/b 08.01.01) to home addresses of members in London TV Studios, Post-Production and Graphics, and Radio and TV OBs.
In spite of improvements in the original £12m savings package, which lawyers advised were significant enough to require a ballot, the union is recommending members to vote against the new proposals.
Among the improvements in the package are the reinstatement of extra payments and voluntarism for long days - although the trigger time is now 13 hours instead of 12 - and the scrapping of plans to force staff to travel to duties within 15 miles of Television Centre in their own time and at their own expense.
The union believes, however, that the revised proposals are still not good enough to secure an agreement on the reorganisation, although negotiators have admitted that the gap between the two sides is smaller than at any time in almost six months of union/management talks.
Management's first attempt to win agreement on a reorganisation which aimed to cut £6m from the wage bill through job cuts and the introduction of new conditions of service, led to a one-day strike on December 2 2000.
In a renewed round of discussions in the run-up to Christmas, management indicated that they were willing to make concessions on a number of less controversial issues, and promised to continue negotiations in January.
London Operations also promised to table new proposals in January on long days/short breaks, and travel payments, both of which had proved to be major stumbling blocks. A threat of the changes being forced through on January 1 without agreement was lifted by management, and the union responded by postponing its plan to begin a work-to-rule that day.
On January 3, new proposals were sent to the union, with a warning that management intended to impose the changes on February 1. Under current UK labour laws any "significant" new offer from an employer made during an industrial dispute must be put to a vote of members, to ensure that any subsequent industrial action remains legal.
Advice from lawyers suggested that a straight rejection of the revised package without a ballot of members would prevent the union from proceeding with a work-to-rule if management imposed the new conditions on February 1. The ballot closes on January 26.
Key issues which negotiators believe still stand in the way of an agreement are the 13-hour definition of a long day, interpretation of the BBC's national formula for "excess travel" claims, which will be applied in London Ops instead of the 15 mile radius proposal, and the unresolved question of more than 50 compulsory redundancies, most of them in Studio Management.
In addition, there is no guarantee at present that continued negotiations on issues like acting pay and late night/early morning transport will conclude with agreement. However, the union hopes that the outcome of these discussions will be known by the time the ballot closes.