Red Bee ballot suspended

An industrial action ballot at TV playout centre Red Bee has been suspended following guarantees about future negotiations.

The ballot was being held in a dispute over an attempt to impose unagreed shift patterns on Playout and Media Services staff.

At a recent meeting Red Bee, formerly BBC Broadcast, agreed in future no rota changes will be introduced without full negotiations with BECTU.

Members are now being consulted through a separate ballot to endorse the latest moves by union negotiators. The ballot closes 1200 24 July 2007.

BECTU Assistant General Secretary commented: "They [Red Bee] accepted that what has happened in the recent past has not been the right way to conduct matters and agreed that future discussions on rotas and other issues should always involve the union.

"As a goodwill gesture we decided to halt the industrial action ballot but we felt that we should seek the endorsement of all of the membership in the affected area of the actions taken and on the new position".

Crawley continued: "They acknowledged that even though new rotas were now in place in several areas, they could be subject to further revision.

"They also accepted that on a long shift two meal breaks should be scheduled rather than taken 'as and when'. There will be no further changes in headcount without proper discussions.

"It is clear that the main reason for the change in the position of management is because they wished to avoid industrial action.

"We pointed out that our members also wished to avoid going on strike but were prepared to do so if their union, BECTU, was not directly involved in any discussions on key workplace issues".

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.