Call for BBC off-shore talks
BECTU is seeking an urgent meeting with Xansa, the company that has won the BBC payroll services contract.
The union wants to know what impact the move will have on its members, currently employed by Medas, since it appears that some of the work will be moving off-shore outside the UK and could lead to redundancies.
“Some of the jobs may be going off-shore.”
BECTU wants to ensure that sufficient protection is given its members' terms and conditions and, in particular, their pensions.
This is the first time any outsourced BBC work will be sent off-shore.
BECTU will also be seeking a separate meeting with the BBC following recent news stories indicating there is a greater risk to the security of financial information that is held off-shore.
The union says this will be of great concern to members at the BBC who need to know their personal financial information is safe and secure.
The BBC Board of Governors has approved Xansa as the preferred bidder for the BBC's outsourced Finance and Accounting services. The new contract is planned to run for a period of 10 years, and is the result of the re-tendering of services that were previously outsourced to Medas in 1997.
Supervisory Official Luke Crawley commented: "Outsourcing is something we have always been opposed to, but this situation is even more serious as some of the jobs may be going off-shore.
"BECTU will fight to protect our members' terms, conditions and pensions, and resist any compulsory redundancies."