Red Bee strike ballot begins

Members affected by unilateral changes in rotas at the West London TV playout centre have begun an industrial action ballot.

BECTU is in dispute with Red Bee management over revised shift patterns for Playout and Media Services staff, which the company plans to impose without agreement.

Months of discussions earlier this year, which led to a number of concessions from management, culminated in a consultative ballot in which members overwhelmingly rejected the changes.

Efforts to reopen discussions with the company since the ballot result was announced on May 29 have proved fruitless, and management have attempted to deal directly with individual staff, rather than the union.

The company is now threatening to impose modified new rotas on June 30 in Media Management and August 4 in Playout.

Red Bee admitted early in the failed talks about the changes that the new rotas were designed to cut the usage of taxis to and from work outside normal public transport hours.

Managers drew up patterns which involved predominantly 12-hour turns of duty, including the overnight shift, posing health and social problems which concerned union reps.

The dispute is the first serious confrontation between BECTU and Red Bee since the company bought BBC Broadcast Ltd in 2005, and breaks a long run of good industrial relations.

Since the sale Red Bee has set challenging profit targets, and the cut in taxi bills which would result from the revised rotas is thought to be motivated entirely by cost-savings.

Red Bee is responsible for playing out almost all the BBC's TV channels from its White City base, makes all the trails advertising programmes, and also services other television broadcasters including UKTV and ESPN.

The strike ballot closes on July 12, and local representatives are already considering the precise form any action would take, with an initial two-day stoppage looking likely.