BBC Radio Resources go home

Technical and support staff in BBC Radio Resources will rejoin Production next April.

Management of BBC RPR and Radio OBs, part of Resources Limited, announced today that all their staff would transfer into Radio & Music Division or World Service on April 1 2002.

No job cuts are planned as a result of the transfer, although there is potential duplication of some posts in administrative areas, and a small number of jobs could eventually be at risk.

Staff terms and conditions will remain unchanged, but there could be problems over the expenses policy currently applied to Radio OBs, and the differential payment for unpredicable working that will be created in Radio & Music Division.

Union representatives have welcomed the move as "the return of common sense" - the Radio Resources section was excluded from Resources Ltd, set up in 1998, and has effectively been in limbo since then.

The re-integration of Radio Resources marks the end of the BBC's Production Services Division, following the transfer of many regional technical facilities into Nations & Regions under Greg Dyke's "One BBC" plan.

Management plan full consultations with BECTU, but are unlikely to convene a formal meeting until mid-January by when they hope to have a clearer idea of the new management structures that will be needed in the two Divisions taking over Radio Resources.

Union reps were briefed by managers today and told that:

  • Radio & Music will take over:
    • Broadcasting House technical and support staff
    • London Control Room
    • Bush House Studio Managers working for World Service English
    • Radio OBs
    • RPR staff in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, and Daventry.

  • World Service will take over:
    • All RPR staff at Bush House, including support, except the English Service Studio Managers

Despite the welcome that the plan received from the union, at least two issues have been identified as potential problems:

  • Radio OB staff, who currently work on a system of scale-rate expenses under Resources Ltd rules, will be moving into a Division which makes actuality payments only for meals and overnights. Although management accept that they are covered by the TUPE regulations, which protect terms and conditions for workers transferred from one employer to another, RPR have said that this does not protect the expenses formula applied to Radio OBs staff.

  • English Service studio managers at Bush House receive a Level One Unpredictability Allowance, lower than the Level Two payment given to their counterparts at Broadcasting House, causing possible scheduling problems once they are combined in Radio & Music Division. Management have however said that the Bush House staff will not be moved away from World Service duties and shifts.

Management have indicated that these issues will form part of the negotiations which are expected to run until the implementation date of April 1 2002.

Once RPR staff have returned to their associated production departments, little will remain of the resources reorganisation pushed through under former DG John Birt.

13 December 2001