Members give support to BBC ballot
Members crowd round union speakers at a Television Centre meeting
In major centres including London, Cardiff, Glasgow, and Belfast, BBC staff belonging to BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus, have given rousing receptions to union officials touring the UK to encourage members to vote for strike action
The ballot, prompted by the breakdown of talks on plans for extensive cuts and privatisation at the BBC, began last week, and closes on May 11.
Read the letters BECTU sent out with its ballot papers
Union officials have reported the best attendance at meetings for several years, and members have pledged unanimous support for a yes vote in the ballot.
The union campaign has highlighted the long-term damage that could be done to the BBC, and its staff, if the ambitious cuts programme proposed by Director-General Mark Thompson is implemented as planned.
Up to 4000 staff, many of them programme-makers, face redundancy, and almost 3000 more could be outsourced or privatised in the next year.
Unions have predicted that there will be no winners if Thompson's plans are pushed through - staff lose out whether they remain at the BBC or not.
Those who survive the package of cuts and privatisation will, according to the BBC, be expected to take on work previously done by staff who leave.
Their new duties, which will be added to their current workload, will include taking charge of budgets and finance systems, drafting contracts for actors and freelance staff, and assuming full responsibility for personnel work currently done by specialist professionals.
Many staff who face redundancy will have little choice about their futures - the BBC admits that although it would prefer to avoid compulsory redundancies, they will be inevitable in many areas.
The future could be equally bleak for staff facing privatisation or outsourcing, with the BBC refusing to give firm guarantees about their treatment by new employers.
As many as 750 staff in specialist areas like finance and human resources could be outsourced as part of a 50% reduction in headcount. Management are due to announce this week exactly which areas will be moved out of the BBC.
Employees of wholly-owned subsidiaries BBC Broadcast and BBC Resources could also be handed to new employers if their companies are sold by the BBC. Bidders for BBC Broadcast Ltd, with nearly 1000 staff, have already been whittled down to a list of 18, and a target date of August 2005 has been set for completion of the sale.
BBC Resources, according to reports in the trade press, is likely to be split up and sold piecemeal, with its Outside Broadcast department due to go into private ownership first.
Among the unions' key demands put to Mark Thompson in March was a call for any staff hit by outsourcing or privatisation to be guaranteed continued membership of a final salary pension scheme, and it was his refusal to concede this, and two other union requests, that led to the strike ballot.
Negotiators were told that, while the BBC would treat pension provision as a priority, it would not rule out the prospect of staff being handed to new employers who did not have final salary schemes.
Along with the call for pension guarantees, unions also asked for a 90-day freeze on changes, to allow full discussion of Thompson's plans, and a promise from the BBC that any redundancies would be voluntary.
No further negotiating meetings are planned with the BBC at present, but union representatives from BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus, are due to get together on May 12, the day after voting ends.
Several separate ballots are underway due to current industrial laws - the three unions are balloting members separately in the BBC, BECTU and Amicus are running separate ballots in BBC Resources, and yet another vote is being conducted by BECTU among its members in BBC Broadcast.
From the close of the ballot unions will have four weeks within which industrial action can start, with the proviso that seven days notice must, legally, be given of any intended strike. Although members are being balloted separately, the unions intend that any stoppages will be synchronised across the BBC and its subsidiaries.
Any BECTU members in the BBC, BBC Broadcast Ltd, or BBC Resources Ltd, who have not received ballot papers, should urgently contact union Head Office on 020 7346 0900.
22nd April 2005
Dear Member,
This letter contains a ballot paper, and the union is asking all BECTU members to vote YES to industrial action. This letter will explain why your vote is important, and why you should vote yes for industrial action and support the strike call when it comes.
We are balloting our members in the BBC in opposition to a proposal to slash 3030 staff and sell off Broadcast Ltd and Resources Ltd. We are also against the outsourcing of support areas including parts of Health and Safety, Training, Finance, and other departments amounting to another 750 staff.
The Director General says this is for the good of the Corporation, but is unable to answer the question of how 80% of the staff remaining are expected to do 100% of the work, except by saying "work smarter". This is insulting since no amount of smarter working can get around the fact that if you are not made redundant you will be working very much harder. These self-imposed cuts and savage reductions will permanently damage the ability of the BBC to produce the high-quality programmes on TV, Radio and the Web which justify the licence fee.
In response to Mark Thompson's cuts' announcements in March, the Joint Unions asked for:
We say that the BBC must consult on whether the cuts are necessary; whether they can be avoided; and whether their impact could be reduced. At present, the management are refusing to do so. You may have been told by your manager that you will be outsourced or sold, or that 15% of the jobs in your department will be closed, but there has been no thought about how services will be delivered. Managers have been told that they must cut jobs to save a pre-determined sum, and it does not matter what effect this will have. This is not meaningful consultation.
We believe that the outsourcing of BBC Production and News will be even more damaging to the BBC in the medium term. The so-called Window of Creative Competition means that the BBC has accepted that it will in future be making in-house a maximum of only 60% of BBC programmes. There is a serious danger that the BBC will fall below a critical mass of in-house production, as more and more programmes go out to profit-making independent producers. The BBC should be fighting to preserve BBC Production and News, not allowing more and more programmes to be "contracted out" to companies which must make a profit at the expense of the licence payer.
We have arranged a calendar of joint meetings with the NUJ and AMICUS, some of which have already taken place, those still to come are listed below. These are open meetings for everyone at the BBC. Further details are on our website.
The ballot closes on 11th May, and if there is a yes vote, the Joint Unions will meet on Thursday 12th May to decide when the first strike will take place.
This is a crucial moment in the history of the BBC. It is vital that we know your views. Please use the ballot paper and
Further updates will be on the BECTU website at www.bectu.org.uk.
You have received this ballot paper because according to our records you are employed by the BBC if this is not the case please can you email [email protected] with your details.
Yours sincerely,
Luke Crawley
22nd April 2005
Dear Member,
As you know, there are separate industrial action ballots being conducted in BBC Broadcast, BBC Resources, and the BBC itself. The union is obviously hoping that each of them will produce a decisive vote in favour of action.
I'm writing to explain why these ballots are particularly important for members in Broadcast and Resources, who are facing the prospect of being sold to new owners - a move that BECTU opposes.
Last month the joint unions presented the BBC with a series of demands to protect members who are affected by Mark Thompson's plans - the BBC's refusal to agree to these led to the strike ballots.
Key amongst these was a demand that the BBC should give a guarantee to staff in its wholly-owned subsidiaries that their terms and conditions, including pension rights, would be protected if their companies were sold.
We quoted the example of the BBC Technology sale to Siemens last year when, backed by a threat of strike action, the union secured the right of BBCT staff to remain in a final-salary pension scheme, a guarantee that conditions of service, including redundancy terms, would remain unchanged for three years, and a 12-month guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.
Earlier this month we put this demand directly to Mark Thompson, calling for staff in Broadcast and Resources to be given guarantees "at least as good" as those won by the union on behalf of BBCT members. He refused.
Some employment rights are, in theory, protected by law when workers are passed from one employer to another. The Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations (TUPE) make it difficult, but not impossible, for a new employer to vary conditions of service soon after taking over another company's staff, and the BBC has said that the "spirit" of TUPE will apply to the sale of Broadcast and Resources, even if it is not legally required.
However, pension rights are not protected by law, which is why the union tabled a clear demand that any staff facing privatisation should be given a guarantee that they will remain in a pension scheme as good as the BBC's own.
The BBC has gone to great lengths publicly to state that continued membership of a final salary pension scheme for staff who are sold off was a "priority" in negotiations with prospective purchasers, but Mark Thompson himself has refused to put a binding obligation on bidders to provide one.
Broadcast Ltd told the union that prospective purchasers would be asked to bid "on the basis" of a defined benefit pension scheme, but no obligation would be written into the sale documentation.
Resources Ltd said that making a pension scheme a pre-condition of any sale would "reduce the number and range of bidders".
Members in both companies are right to be alarmed by these comments, especially given the timetable for privatisation being pursued by the BBC. Broadcast Ltd is expected to be sold by August, according to the company's managers, and an article in Broadcast magazine on April 15 revealed that at least one part of Resources Ltd, Outside Broadcasts, could be sold by July this year.
From experience with Siemens, the union knows that setting up final salary pension arrangements is a task that takes several months, not the few weeks that may remain before the BBC signs contracts to sell Broadcast or Resources.
For this reason, and to protect key rights like the BBC redundancy formula, it is imperative that members in Broadcast and Resources vote in favour of industrial action in their ballots, putting pressure on management to grant the guarantees demanded by the unions.
BECTU is against further privatisation of the BBC, but this could turn out to be your last chance to influence your future before the BBC hands you to a new boss. Use your ballot paper to vote "YES"
Further updates will be on the BECTU website at www.bectu.org.uk.
You have received this ballot paper because according to our records you are employed by the BBC Resources LTD, if this is not the case please can you email [email protected] with your details.
Yours sincerely,
Luke Crawley
Letter sent to all BBC BECTU members with ballot papers
The Answer Was NO: the BBC presented the £355 million of cuts as a foregone conclusion, and wanted to talk only about how to manage the cuts.
The Answer Was NO: the BBC want to start asking for volunteers straight away. We are insisting that before any trawl members need to know what they will be asked to do if they stay. You should not take part in any conversation with your manager about volunteering.
The Answer Was NO: the BBC refused to offer any guarantees, and would not even rule out the possibility that the buyers of Broadcast or Resources might not provide a final salary pension.
VOTE YES FOR INDUSTRIAL ACTION
Supervisory Official
BBC Division BECTU
Letter sent to BECTU members in BBC Broadcast and BBC Resources
Supervisory Official
BBC Division BECTU