Resources dispute recommendation
BBC Resources members are recommended to accept new proposals to resolve a major dispute.
Talks have lead to significant new proposals covering London Operations, the majority of BBC Resources Ltd, which include:
- The right to refuse duty longer than 12 hours.
- Additional payments for hours over 12.
- Consolidation of previous short term acting payments.
- Travel time and mileage calculated as elsewhere in the BBC.
The union is recommending that members in the ballot accept the new proposals which emerged from a negotiating meeting yesterday (18 July). The ballot closes at 1200 on Monday 13 August, and will involve all BECTU members in BBC London Operations.
The new conditions and travel proposals will come into force on 21 July 2001 on an initial basis, and will be continued if the ballot of members indicates approval. A similar ballot result will also enable implementation of the other elements of the proposals.
The industrial action was introduced to oppose a wide ranging package that included a number of enforced redundancies and unagreed local conditions changes.
The conditions changes included management withdrawing from local working time agreements, which included the right the refuse working hours longer than 12 hours and short breaks between duties, changes to travel arrangements, along with withdrawal of short terms acting compensation.
Union negotiators believe the new proposals represent the reinstatement of a number of important conditions principles. It is because of this, along with a number of new proposals, that negotiators are recommending that London Operations BECTU members accept the package in the forthcoming consultative ballot.
Working Time
It is proposed that there is a right to refuse duty longer than 12 hours. For any work carried out over 12 hours an additional payment of 1T will be made to Hours Conditions staff.
A new right of being able to refuse turns of duty of more than six consecutive days, except where these form part of a single programme production, is also proposed.
The above replaces the previous management position at which the trigger point for voluntarism and 1T compensation was 13 hours.
The right to refuse infringement of 11 hour breaks between turns of duty remains.
Short term acting
This aspect covers short term acting daily payments (ERR - Extra Responsibility Reward). It is proposed that in addition to the previously tabled promotions to consolidate 50% of ERR earned in the financial year 2000-2001.
Under this plan 50% of the 2000-2001 ERR total for each category is divided equally amongst individual Hours Conditions post holders as consolidation into basic pay. These payments will be subject to a minimum of £75 per individual, and consolidation will take place after the promotions referred to above have taken place.
Those covered by the permanent acting promotions and the 50% acting promotions will be eligible for consolidation.
The above is offered in the context of staff carrying out up to 25 days a year of short term daily acting with no compensation - approximately equivalent to covering for one persons leave. If there is a requirement for more than 25 days annually from an individual then long term acting arrangements with relevant payments should apply.
The above replaces the previous proposals which included the promotions, short terms acting up to maximum of 65 days with no compensation and no ERR consolidation.
Travel time and mileage
It is proposed to move to overall BBC arrangement for travel time and mileage - ie hours and miles would be based on the lesser time from home to site and base to site.
This replaces the previous management position of (for London based staff) the amount of mileage and time by which the distance from home to site exceeds the distance from home to Television Centre.
Conditions of service
It was agreed to remove the following wording that appears on a number of duty schedules in London Operations
"It is the responsibility of each member of staff to determine their duties their duties in advance and to check for amendments"since this is not in line with the current local conditions documentation.
Error - please note the last sentence in the first paragraph of the letter below should read "This would mean that you could claim the the lesser of the two trips, home to location, or base to location, and this would apply to time and cost of travel."
18 July 2001
Dear Colleague
Breakthrough in talks - industrial action suspended
At a meeting on Thursday 18th July, following extensive discussions with BECTU, the management of London Operations tabled proposals which could mean an end to the current dispute. This letter will set out the offer from management and explain why your negotiating team agreed to suspend the action during the ballot. I enclose with this letter a ballot paper and would urge you to vote "YES" and return the ballot form in the envelope provided as soon as possible, and in any event to reach Luke Crawley at BECTU Head Office not later than 12 noon on Monday 13th August.
Travel
There are three aspects to the dispute and I will deal with each of them in turn, starting with travel. Initially the management wanted to redefine base as a circle of 25 miles radius around TV Centre and BH Manchester. This was reduced to 10 miles, and then a new formula where you could claim the difference between your journey from to home to base and base to location. This was further complicated by a formula that would cap the amount of time that could be claimed. At the last meeting the management proposed moving to the formula applied in the rest of the BBC. This would mean that you could claim the lesser of the two trips, home to base, or base to location, and this would apply to time and cost of travel.
This has the merit of being relatively simple to understand and apply but it does mean that some areas will be worse off than they were previously. However all of those who travel to locations would have had much greater losses under the other proposals. The arrangements covering travel to BBC Elstree are unaffected by this.
ERR
The management's final offer on ERR is not as straightforward and is the result of several meetings. In brief, the management have proposed a number of promotions in Studios, Post Production and OBs in various categories and also a number of long term Acting positions for individuals. These would be of at least three months' duration and a number would be for 6 and 12 months. This is to ensure that there are enough people at the higher level to significantly reduce the requirement for short term or ad hoc Acting. There would still be a requirement for some ad hoc Acting where you turn up on the day and the senior person has called in sick. There would also be a need for some medium term Acting to cover leave. BECTU sought to limit the amount of this kind of Acting, and after discussion 25 days per person per year was agreed. This was with the proviso that if you have to act up to cover leave, or a show, or series, and an amount of planning is required, it would always be preceded by a discussion with the member of staff. This is because some staff lack the confidence or necessary training to equip them to take on the higher level of responsibility. The management agree that it is not in the interest of London Operations to have staff taking on responsibilities that they could not discharge, and they will always take into account the response of the member of staff to the request to act. They were unable to agree that you could refuse to act in all circumstances because sometimes the needs of the service dictate otherwise, but they would be seeking the agreement of the member of staff and would be prepared to address any training issues.
The second part of the proposal which was clarified at the meeting on 18th is the salary treatment of all staff affected. You may have seen a table of categories and sums of money this should be disregarded as it is inaccurate. In the course of a lengthy adjournment the management recalculated the figures. The proposal is that in order to buy out ERR they will go through the appointments process so all those successful will not be Acting in the future. They will then give a salary increase to all those remaining in the affected categories where there could be a requirement to Act. The amounts will vary according to the levels of ERR earned by the category in the 12 month period up to 31st March 2001 but there will be a minimum increase of £75 per year. The increase will not apply to those on an SFS because the issue of ERR and Acting has been covered in their salary arrangements. The increases will apply to those who are on the Acting attachments of whatever length. If accepted this would mean that ERR will no longer be paid to staff in London Operations.
Working Time
This was the reef on which the talks could have foundered because we could not concede that the normal shift should be 13 hours and the management appeared equally set upon 13 hours. We made the case to the management that actually there is a great deal of flexibility inside the current system of voluntarism, and after some deliberation they conceded the point and made an agreement possible. The offer is that now you have to volunteer to be scheduled over 12 hours. If you do, then there will be an additional payment of 1T for each hour worked. You will also need to volunteer for turnarounds of less than 11 hours between duties.
In addition to the main points above, the management also conceded that mileage rates would move to the new higher BBC rates, with the exception of motorcycles of over 125 cc where the London Ops rate is currently 25.4p, and this will come down to 24p. A new edition of the conditions of service document will be issued to reflect the changes if they are agreed.
Action suspended
As part of the talks the management asked BECTU to make a positive recommendation and consider suspending the action while the ballot was running. In order to secure all of the concessions listed above your negotiators were prepared to agree to a positive recommendation because we believe that the latest proposals will be accepted by the membership. We were also prepared to agree to a suspension of the action during consultation because the new proposals will bring immediate benefits in some areas, and while the action has been running it has caused personal inconvenience to the members observing it. So with effect from 0001 on Monday 23rd July the action is suspended.
Whatever the outcome of the ballot, I would like to thank all those BECTU members who have adhered to the instruction for industrial action. Your efforts have brought the management to the table with proposals which we believe will be accepted, that is a success in itself. I believe that with total support from all members we would have reached this point sooner, but thanks are due from all of us to those who supported the action throughout.
Please vote YES to accept the proposals.
If you have received this letter it is because our records show you as employed by Resources Ltd in London Operations. If this is not the case, please can you email [email protected] with your name, staff number, department and employer so that we can amend our records.
Further details of the offer will be on the website at www.bectu.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Luke Crawley
Supervisory Official
Amended 19 July 2001
Amended 21 July 2001
Amended 23 July 2001