Talks could run into 2006
Talks on BBC plans for more than 3,000 job cuts now look set to continue into the New Year.
In most areas the discussions, which were kicked off by the post-strike ACAS agreement in June 2005, have not yet reached a conclusion, and unions are likely to delay a promised meeting with the DG which was originally expected to take place late this year.
The scene at TV Centre during strike action on 23 May 2005.
In many areas the lengthy duration of talks is a sign of good progress, not disagreement.
Trawls for redundancy volunteers have been completed in most Divisions, and in many cases there are almost enough, or even too many, to meet management's demands for cuts.
However, some managers are threatening to turn down volunteers, even if that leads to compulsory redundancies, and the unions are not yet predicting a fully-agreed outcome to the talks by the time they meet Director General Mark Thompson to review the situation.
Nevertheless, unions are confident that, with flexibility from local managers, a very significant proportion of the target job cuts will be achieved through voluntary redundancy.
Plans to out-source back office services are still being pursued by the BBC. In the BBC People Division, which covers HR, recruitment, training, health and safety, and diversity, management expect to announce a final shortlist of bidders in mid-November.
BECTU, which opposes the outsourcing exercise, has called for the contract covering 305 staff to be awarded to a single company, instead of being split across a range of small providers. The BBC's official position is that it "prefers" a single contract, but no firm commitment has been made to this.
In Finance Division, plans for outsourcing have still to be revealed, but BECTU is expecting that approximately one third of its 1,000 staff may be affected, with another third potentially facing redundancy when details are announced this month.
The impact of back-office job losses on other staff is still unclear, but it now seems certain that they will have to pick up at least some of the work done by departing staff, as the union predicted.