ACAS calls in unions and BBC
The scene at TV Centre's main entrance during action on May 23.
The intervention came on the day after a 24-hour stoppage by members of BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus, in protest at cuts and privatisation, played havoc with TV, radio, and online output.
Both unions and management announced at lunchtime today (May 24) that they had accepted the invitation to attend talks without pre-conditions.
BECTU's Assistant General Secretary, Gerry Morrissey, said: "We welcome the invitation to talks at ACAS. Clearly the BBC would not have agreed to go unless they were prepared to negotiate.
"We're expecting some kind of compromise from the BBC, but can't predict at this stage whether it will be enough to settle the dispute."
"If this does turn out to be a step forward, it will have been made possible by the overwhelming show of support from members for yesterday's industrial action", said Morrissey.
Talks have been timetabled for 1000 on Thursday May 26, when the joint union negotiating team will meet senior BBC managers, although the day will not necessarily begin with face-to-face negotiations if ACAS follows its usual approach to conciliation in industrial disputes.
Two further days of action remain in the diary - May 31, and June 1 - although unions plan no further announcements about them while talks are going on.
During the one-day stoppage on May 23, which unions claimed won the support of up to 13,000 BBC staff, BECTU officials took advantage of intense media interest in the strike to repeat the union's central concerns about plans to shake-up the BBC.
BECTU believes that proposals to cut 4,000 jobs, and the outsourcing or sale of key departments like BBC Broadcast and BBC Resources, will leave too few staff to deliver new services being promised to licence payers in return for another 10 years of licence funding.
Unions are also worried that after many years of job cuts being achieved through voluntary reductions, staff now face thousands of compulsory redundancies.
Questions have been asked about the extra work that will have to be picked up by staff who survive the reorganisation, once almost one in four of their colleagues have left the BBC through redundancy or privatisation, but the BBC has not offered answers.
"At the ACAS bargaining table we'll be looking for the BBC to drop out-sourcing plans, especially the privatisation of BBC Broadcast and Resources, and we want an effective mechanism to avoid compulsory redundancies", said Morrissey.
"We also want to know how the BBC can deliver everything it is promising to audiences in the future, after making such severe cuts", he continued.
ACAS, the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service, has intervened in high-profile BBC union disputes on previous occasions when negotiations have reached deadlock.
In 1989, after an industrial action campaign involving 13 stoppages, many of them short duration, the unions won an historic 8.8% pay rise in talks at ACAS.
More recently, in 1998, a complex dispute over salary management, multi-skilling, and the creation of BBC Resources Ltd, was settled, after strike action, at ACAS.
Among the concessions won by unions in 1998 was a written guarantee from the BBC Board of Governors that "the incorporation of BBC Resources is not a prelude to privatisation". Resources is now one of two wholly-owned BBC subsidiaries facing a sell-off under the Director-General's reorganisation of the Corporation.
Amended 25 May 2005
Amended 26 May 2005
Amended 27 May 2005
Comments received
I find it interesting that the number of those on strike was 38%, well below the figures Mark Thompson plans to cut, and he himself states in his May 24 e-mail to staff, "Continuous news both on TV and Radio was very constrained in what it could cover".
Kelly, BBC staff, London UK 24 May 2005
Good Luck to all the journalists and technical staff on strike over the BBC cuts and car-boot-sale privatization. The voluminous layers of managers, not the staff need to be targeted. I am genuinely worried about this being part of a bit by bit sell of the BBC and the gradual end of public service broadcasting. The BBC doesn't become better by plumbing new depths led by the private sector. Victory to the joint unions.
James, Glasgow UK 24 May 2005
Let's hope that the BBC management now see sense, and reach a reasonable compromise with the unions.
Bob, BBC staff, Belfast UK 24 May 2005
As an NUJ member, I was very happy yesterday to join BECTU, NUJ and Amicus colleagues on the picket line at TV Centre and also at BBC World Service, Bush House. I was impressed by the strength and solidarity on the lines and wish the joint union negotiating committee every success at ACAS on Thursday. Hasta la victoria!
Kyran, London UK 24 May 2005
For something to smile at:
For those of us receiving an email such as ....
Dear Colleague,
Our records show that you were absent from work on Monday without approval. You need to be aware that as a result pay will be deducted for the hours lost. For those of you whose pay is managed by accounting period, the amount of any pay to be stopped will be calculated at the end of the accounting period, and we will make the appropriate deduction from your salary, or reduce any additional payments accordingly.
If you wish to discuss this action with me, please get in touch.
How about this ....
Dear Colleague,
Our records show that you crossed a picket line on Monday. You need to be aware that as a result colleagues may adopt a particularly brusque manner when they are unavoidably forced to work with you in the future. For those of you who can claim to be unaware that there was a dispute on Monday (or whose head was buried somewhere that obscured the issue of solidarity with your colleagues) there may be an opportunity to redeem yourselves on further strike days. Those who believe their pay and career is best pursued by maximum sycophancy and a parasitic approach to the gains and advantages achieved by the unions can consider themselves Sycophantic Careerists And Brazenly Selfish. Badges advertising the fact can be worn accordingly.
If you wish to discuss this action, please join the union.
Roy, BBC staff, London UK 25 May 2005
Did anyone see Mark Byford on Monday evening's Channel 4 News? He was asked what cuts would be made in senior management, and he couldn't answer the question. He was then asked to name a single senior management job that would go, and he still couldn't give an answer ... now there's one person Thompson could cut without impacting on programme quality!
Richard, BBC staff, Manchester UK 25 May 2005
I think it is VERY important the public understands the scale of what Thomson proposes and what it means to THEM. We NEED public opinion on 'our' side and some newspapers are NOT helping!!! Spread the word to friends and family. We need sympathy and not to be seen as overpaid whingers!
Neil, BBC staff, Newcastle upon Tyne UK 25 May 2005
On Monday 23rd May I joined the picket outside the BBC building I usually work in. I was inspired by the high spirits & sense of solidarity I found there. We received massive support from passing members of the public as well as from our peers in the media who came to report events. The only unpleasantness I heard was from a very small number of scabs who where clearly feeling guilty, & their pathetic disposition only confirmed the wrongness of their actions to me & the rest of the picket.
Of course we all hope Thompson's band of zombies have seen sense & finally intend to start negotiating (at ACAS). If not, I can't recommend highly enough joining your local picket on Tues 31st May & Weds 1st June. On Monday I made many excellent new friends/contacts, I certainly felt much better about the situation than I would have done sitting at home, & I learnt much about the art of assertive debating (especially from the NUJ members!).
I was back at work on Tuesday 24th May. I spent most of my shift remounting work incorrectly done by managers & scabs on the strike day! How many people have had similar experiences? We all know many BBC managers are incompetent in performing their duties, so it's hardly surprising they don't know how to do our jobs. I'm not surprised that the staff who scabbed on Monday & lack the professionalism to stand up for Public Service Broadcasting also lack the ability to do their jobs properly.
When the BBC published the figures for the strike action they didn't publicise all the money wasted paying incompetents to get things wrong, & all the time/money wasted putting things right.
John, BBC staff, London UK 25 May 2005
I'm not sure 'Roy' from London's comments are very helpful. Can BECTU confirm non-striking BBC employees will be treated with respect by those who went on strike?
Mr Phillips, Wales UK 25 May 2005
Can I point out that the picket line was manned by more that just 'journalists and technicians'. Many production, security and clerical staff joined us on Monday. Most news reports focused only on the former, regardless of where much support came from or where many cuts are directed.
Colin, BBC staff, Belfast UK 25 May 2005
Assuming the BBC are prepared to consider counter proposals for making economies, I would like to make two fairly radical suggestions for the negotiating team at ACAS tomorrow (which they may well have thought of already):
One of the matters that most concerns me, as a member of staff for 36 years - probably a record these days - is the proposed sale of Broadcast (not to mention Resources) which I understand is entirely for financial expediency and which the BBC hope to complete by August - and is presumably why they do not wish to delay matters by having to build in guarantees on pensions.
Would it not be preferable to sell of the BBC's remaining interest in the white elephant known as the Media/Broadcast Centre, of which several unoccupied square feet are now advertised for rent? This prime office property, which is of no use to many production areas who need 24-hour and transport access (and many of whom are likely to be relocated to Manchester within the next few years) should fetch a tidy sum and help to plug the hole in the Corporation finances.
Secondly, given that the BBC claims it needs to release more money for productions including digital programming, do we really need two adult digital channels? I know this is an expanding area, in which the BBC was asked to invest (ironically enough) by the government to encourage digital take-up - but that has to a great extent already happened and I think licence-payers would be sympathetic to a need to retrench at a time of financial pressure.
Much of the transmission time is given to recycling (or even pre-cycling) programmes from terrestrial channels, and as the audience increases surely they will come to resent this as much as they do the number of repeats on BBC-1 and BBC-2 (while re-runs of tv programmes on the internet are probably not very far away).
A larger audience could also make it more difficult for the BBC to continue to justify the more modest contribution fees generally applied to digital channels as the differential is eroded. The effort required to service digital programmes in programme support areas comes from already hard-pressed departments, and although seen as a useful testing ground for genres such as avant-garde comedy, once the channels acquire more of the mainstream audience they will surely more closely come to resemble BBC-2 which used to be the natural home for this kind of thing.
Amanda, BBC staff, London UK 25 May 2005
On my local radio station we're likely to lose two BJs, a BA and an on-line journalist. However, the management team will remain intact, with an Editor, Assistant Editor, 5 SBJs, Sports Editor and LRA. Perhaps in years to come the single remaining member of the station - a BA - will be producing and presenting all audio and TV output, editing the local website... and will be managed by 27 managers? It is only a vision....
John, BBC staff, Middlesbrough UK 26 May 2005
The official BBC figures state that only 38% of staff were missing from work during the strike. If you look at the programming chaos that this caused, imagine the effect of losing 20% of existing staff permanently.
M, BBC staff, London UK 26 May 2005
I thoroughly believe in the strike action. The top brass at the BBC seem to have a complete and utter disregard for the staff that are working so hard for them.
In a Financial times article, published on the 17.05, regarding the sale of BBC Broadcast; The BBC were quoted as saying: "The business will do better with new ownership, but we are choosing a partner we can work with. We don't have to sell".
Are the numerous Broadcast employees, who are currently very concerned about their futures, to come to the conclusion that the sale is as meaningless as this quote suggests? Are we to believe that the BBC's reason for sale is based on an altruistic desire to see BBC broadcast thrive as a successful business, with license fee money being spent on boosting the profits of whoever takes over? Staff have made their feelings quite clear on this issue and although recent talk of industrial action has focussed on the retention of salaries and pension deals, many people are simply aggrieved that they have to leave an institution that they have grown very fond of. If the BBC doesn't have to sell BBC Broadcast then the simple solution is don't.
Pete, BBC staff, Newcastle UK 26 May 2005
Shame Roy didn't give his surname. I don't regard myself as a "scab". I can't afford to go on strike and quite frankly there are a lot of people in the BBC who don't have enough work to do. Staff reduction on this scale was mooted over five years ago and the BBC needs to move on. A job for life no longer exists. I know a lot of staff at BBC Broadcast aren't happy to be sold and feel let down by the BBC. As to the output, I didn't notice much difference and all the union has done has shown we don't need the 38% of staff to run things.
Tracey, BBC staff, London UK 26 May 2005
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