Job fears at BBC Milton Keynes

A new commissioning strategy at the Open University threatens job cuts for BBC staff.

The university, which has traditionally used the BBC's Open University Production Centre (OUPC) as an exclusive supplier of audio-visual material, now intends to turn to the open market for its needs.

Although the long-term impact of the new policy is unclear, BBC managers at the OUPC in Milton Keynes have already announced 16 redundancies, and a ban on renewal of short-term contracts.

Further job cuts could follow once next year's slate of commissions from the Open University is finalised in September. BBC managers have predicted that they will need to "phase down capacity in the period to July 2003".

BECTU has already opened a dialogue on the 16 redundancies announced today (March 27), and has agreed that staff at Milton Keynes should be invited to indicate whether they want to volunteer for redundancy, look for redeployment opportunities elsewhere in the BBC, or remain at Milton Keynes for as long as possible.

The union has also secured a commitment from OUPC management that redundancy volunteers over the age of 50, and between 40 and 45, will be given priority treatment to avoid pension reductions that take place at the end of March.

Early indications suggest that the OUPC management intend to achieve as many of the cuts as possible through voluntary means - a re-training fund has been set up, and a variety of career counselling initiatives are on offer to staff.

However, if the loss of Open University commissions is as great as expected, up to 100 staff face uncertainty after the current 16 redundancies have been implemented.

The university's decision to withdraw its guaranteed workload from the BBC comes at a time when its demand for traditional TV and radio programmes is falling. In future, all course material for its students, except primetime TV programmes, will be in multi-media format.

BECTU representatives are due to meet the BBC on April 17 to discuss the OUPC crisis.